
Qass. 
Book. 



PRESENTED BY" 



EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 



REPORT OF TEN YEARS' WORK OF THE 
PHELPS-STOKES FUND, 1910-1920 



By Thomas Jesse Jones 
Educational Director 



Published by the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund, 25 Madison Avenue, New York 



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Qift 

PubUsher 






TRUSTEES AND OFFICERS 



PHELPS-STOKES FUND 

100 WILLIAM ST. NEW YOHK 



Trustees 



Elmer Ellsworth Brown, 1911- 
Charles Sumner Burch, 1919- 
Henrt Sloan Coffin, 1916- 
*Grace E. Dodge, 1910-1915 
*David H. Greer, 1910-1918 
John Sherman Hoyt, 1910- 
Caroline Phelps Stokes Hunter, 
1910- 



JohnH. MacCracken, 1910-1911 
Edward W. Sheldon, 1910- 
Francis Louis Slade, 1910- 
Olivia E. Phelps Stokes, 1910- 
I. N. Phelps Stokes, 1910- 
Helen 0. Phelps Stokes, 1910- 
Anson Phelps Stokes, 1910- 



Officers 

I. N. Phelps Stokes, Chairman. 
Anson Phelps Stokes, Secretary. 
Francis Louis Slade, Treasurer. 
James W. McCulloch, Clerk. 

Committees 
Executive Committee 



I. N. Phelps Stokes, Chairman. 
Henry Sloan Coffin. 
Francis Louis Slade. 

Committee on Education 

Anson Phelps Stokes, Chairman. 
Elmer Ellsworth Brown. 
Henry Sloan Coffin. 



Helen O. Phelps Stokes. 

Anson Phelps Stokes. 

Olivia E. Phelps Stokes, Honorary. 

Committee on Housing 

I. N. Phelps Stokes, Chairman. 
Francis Louis Slade. 
John Sherman Hoyt. 



*Deceased. 



STAFF 

Thomas Jesse Jones, 1913, Educational Director. 

Dr. Jones was born in Wales. His education was at Washington and Lee University, in Vir- 
ginia, and Marietta College, in Ohio. His post-graduate work was done at Union Theological 
Seminary in New York City and in Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in sociology. 
For a time he was the head worker in the University Settlement in New York City. Later he 
became Associate Chaplain and Director of Research and Sociology at Hampton Institute, Vir- 
ginia. In the census of 1910 he was in charge of the Negro section, directing both the gathering 
and compiling of Negro statistics. In 1913 he became the Educational Director of the Phelps- 
Stokes Fund and a specialist in the Bureau of Education, in charge of the Division of Racial 
Groups. While in this position he conducted the survey of colored schools frequently referred 
to in the present report. It was for this study that the Grant Squires Prize was awarded by 
Columbia University in 1920. 

Ida a. Tourtellot, 1918, Associate Director. 

Miss Tourtellot is a graduate of Vassar College. For five years she was on the faculty of the 
Fall River Normal Training School, Massachusetts. For eleven years she was at Hampton In- 
stitute, Virginia. In 1917-1918 she was a special assistant in sociology to the Doheny Research 
Foundation. 

OcEA W. Taylor, 1913-1917. 

Mr. Taylor is a graduate of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, and of 
Howard University, Washington, D. C, where he received the degrees of B.A. and LL.B. 

Thomas Jackson Woofter, Jr., 1913-1917. 

Mr. Woofter is a graduate of the University of Georgia, and as a post-graduate student there 
he held the Phelps-Stokes Fellowship for 1912-1913. 

Walter B. Hill, 1914-1919. 

Mr. Hill is a graduate of the University of Georgia and a post-graduate student of the same 
University. He held the Phelps-Stokes Fellowship in the University of Georgia for 1913-1914. 

Leo a. Roy, 1918-, Special Accountant. 

Mr. Roy is a graduate of Hampton Institute, Virginia, studying later at Ferris Institute, Mich- 
igan. He was for some time a cost accountant in a large automobile concern. He has been the 
business manager and the accountant of the Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes at 
Tallahassee, Florida. He has worked in the office of the auditor of Chicago University and has 
had experience with a firm of accountants in New York City. 



CONTENTS 

Introduction : 

Biographical Sketch of Caroline Phelps Stokes 7 

History of the Phelps-Stokes Fund 15 

Policies of the Fund 20 

I. Negeo Education in the United States 23 

"Who's Who" in Negro Education 27 

Constructive purposes 38 

Financial Support of Negro Education 29 

Preparation and distribution of the report 31 

n. Educational Adaptations 37 

Industrial Education 38 

Rural Education 41 

Secondary Education 47 

College and Professional Education 50 

Race Elements in Education 51 

III. School Improvement 53 

Dormitory Regidalions 53 

Accounting and Records 57 

Economy and Good Taste in Bmldings and Grounds 59 

Gardening and Simple Manual Training 60 

School Appropriations g j 

IV. Cooperation with Educational and Religious Agencies 63 

Conference of Educational Boards' Representatives 64 

Probation Officers in Southern Cities 64 

Training of Rural Ministers 65 

International Sunday School Association 66 

Other Organizations 66 

V. The Phelps-Stokes Fellowships 68 

Terms of the Fellowships 69 

The Fellows and Their Work 70 

Futm-e Developments of the Fellowships 74 

VI. Untveksitt Commission on Race Questions 77 

Formation of the Commission 77 

Purpose of the Commission 77 

Results of the Commission's Work 79 

VII. The Southern Publicity Committee 80 

Purpose and Scope gj 

Attitude Toward the Work of the Committee 82 

Circulation of Material 83 

Type of Material Issued 84 

Recent Extension of the Work 85 



6 CONTENTS 

Vm. Wak Work 87 

War Department — War and Education 87 

War-time Committee of the Churches 89 

War- Work CouncU of the Y. M. C. A 89 

After-war Cooperation 90 



INTRODUCTION 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CAROLINE PHELPS STOKES 
Caroline Phelps Stokes was born in New York, December 4, 1854, at Clifton 
Cottage on the East River near 30th Street. During her youth the nation was 
rapidly undergoing changes, and the city in which she was born was fast becoming 
the metropolis of the coxmtry. Slavery was soon after abolished, and the freedmen 
required instruction and help in becoming citizens. The poor of New York were 
in sore need of better housing conditions. 

Miss Stokes' ancestors were English and Puritan; among them were men eminent 
for ability and Christian character. Her grandfather, Thomas Stokes, was born 
in London, December 13, 1765. In his diary he writes: 

United with the Countess of Huntingdon Chapel in the Mulberry Garden, near Ratcliffe 
Highway, about 1784. Soon after felt very anxious that the gospel might be sent to the 
heathen and commenced a correspondence with several on the subject. The object was 
presented to the view of churches in England, Scotland, Wales, through the medium of the 
Evangelical Magazine, a periodical got up for that express purpose. Profits to the widows 
of deceased ministers. 

This eflfort resulted in the formation of the London Missionary Society in September, 
1795, at the Castle & Falcon, Aldersgate St., London. Met with . . . Revs. Thomas 
Haweis, Matthew Wilkes, Rowland Hill, and many others, ministers and laymen, to consider 
propriety of forming missionary society for sending the gospel to the heathen. . . . 
Recorded my name . . . among the first members of this new society, and gave a donation 
of two guineas. . . . Ship Duff was purchased, twenty-seven missionaries and mechanics 
were set apart. . . . Spent part of the day with them on board. . . . Resolved to 
endeavor to obey His commands who said, "Go into (aU) the world and preach the gospel 
to every creature." 

In 1786, united in forming a society to give gratuitous instruction to poor children 
belonging to the widows of seamen and soldiers who lost their lives in the American War. 
Work first began with twelve children in 1787. The school was situated on St. George's 
Road, Cannon Street, Ratcliffe Highway. 

In another place he writes: "The Society had under its instruction nearly 200 
children, in a brick building, and another building for teachers, etc." He was 
also associated with Robert Raikes in his earliest efforts to organize Sunday Schools 
in the city of London and its suburbs. 

In 1789, Thomas Stokes chartered a vessel and came to this country, bringing 
with him his wife and children, a man servant and maid, household furniture and 
silver. He was a founder of the American Bible Society, the American Tract 
Society, and the New York Peace Society. 

Miss Stokes' mother was descended from Piu-itan ancestors, numbering among 
them the colonial governors, Thomas Dudley, second Governor of Massachusetts, 

7 



8 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

and John Haynes and George Wyllys, governors of Connecticut. They were men 
eminent for the faithful service they rendered to the young and growing republic. 

Her grandfather, Anson Greene Phelps, was a man of ability and Christian 
character. He was "president of the New York Colonization Society and of the 
New York Blind Asylum, and was very active in religious and benevolent works. 
... He was one of the founders of the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions." He was a founder of the American Tract Society, the Domestic 
Missionary Society, the Marine Bible Society, and the New York Port Society. 
He was for a long time a manager of the American Bible Society. He was asso- 
ciated in several of these societies with Miss Stokes' grandfather, Thomas Stokes. 
At his death he left more money for religious purposes than any man previously 
had left in the State of New York. Besides other gifts to his grandchildren he 
left to each $5,000, with the request that the income should be forever devoted to 
the spread of the gospel. 

Miss Stokes' father, James Stokes, "was interested in founding the Association 
for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and was director in the Hospital for 
Ruptured and Crippled, the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Society for 
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Greenwich Savings Bank. He 
visited in Bellevue Hospital and taught a Bible class there. He gave much time 
to work for public schools." He was interested in the welfare of immigrants and 
was a trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association. 

Mrs. James Stokes was a directress of the New York Colored Orphan Asylum. 
She was interested in the abolition of slavery and in the advance of temperance, 
and was untirmg in a quiet, modest way in relieving suffering and turning many 
from wrong-doing to Christ, by whose help they could resist temptation. Her 
daughter, not long before her mother's death, asked her what she thought had 
given her the truest happiness in life. Her mother thought a moment and answered : 
"Overcoming evil with good." 

The good and helpful lives of these ancestors combined in forming the character 
and influencing the life of Caroline Phelps Stokes. Her early life was spent in 
happy surroundings. Her grandfather, Anson G. Phelps, lived at that time in a 
fine Colonial house on the East River which had been built by Henry A. Coster, a 
wealthy Dutch merchant. At his death his widow married Dr. Hosack, an eminent 
botanist whose Botanical Garden on Fifth Avenue just below 51st Street was left 
by his widow to Columbia University. The yew trees that imtil lately stood on 
either side of the long flight of steps leading to the University Library were from 
Dr. Hosack's Botanical Garden. Miss Stokes' grandfather had bought the house 
from Mrs. Hosack, and here her mother was married to James Stokes. On this 
property, a short distance from the house of Anson G. Phelps, a few years later 
Mr. and Mrs. James Stokes built their home, calling it Clifton Cottage. A large 
conservatory which Dr. Hosack had built was included in the cottage. 

Here, in a beautiful garden sloping down to the East River, Caroline spent 



INTRODUCTION 9 

happy days playing under the long row of chestnut trees, or, in the springtime, 
under the fruit trees in full blossom; sometimes walking down the path bordered 
by ancient box, hand in hand with her grandfather Phelps, to take early breakfast 
with him after he had been to the nursery of her mother's house, where he used 
to trot the children on his knee singing the popular ballad: 

"Hurrah! Hurrah! the country's rising 
For Henry Clay and Frelinghuysen !" 

Henry Clay was a friend of Anson G. Phelps, and he was anxious to have him be- 
come President. 

At the age of three she moved with her family to a large and commodious 
house on Madison Square, where there was also room for a small garden with 
trees, shrubs, and flowers brought from the place on the East River to keep in 
remembrance the large and beautiful garden where she and her brothers and 
sisters had spent a happy childhood. The new house was at 37 Madison Avenue, 
and the adjoining vacant property, where later the house of Leonard W. Jerome, 
long occupied by the Union League Club, was built, was used as a cow pasture in 
the summer and a skating pond in the winter. 

Miss Stokes' summers were spent at Ansonia, Connecticut, a town founded 
by her grandfather, Anson G. Phelps, and named after him. Her mother was fond 
of reading and impressed on her children its value as a means of education. Her 
rule for her children was to read histories and serious books in the morning and 
stories the latter part of the day. Each morning at eleven o'clock on the warm 
summer days the children and the mother sat on the wide piazza or under the trees 
while the mother read aloud, the large family of children sewing or engaged in 
some manual work. The work on Satiu-day morning was paid for, and each child 
gave the amount to missions. The autumn evenings in the dining-room at Ansonia 
cannot easily be forgotten, when the household gathered aroimd the old mahogany 
table brought by Miss Stokes' grandfather, Thomas Stokes, from England. The 
wood fire biu-ned on the hearth and the mother read aloud by candle-light, while 
the entire household were engaged in some useful work. Constantly and un- 
tiringly a devotedly Christian mother prepared her children for later life. 

None of her sisters had been educated away from home, but Miss Stokes early 
decided that she wished to be sent to a boarding-school, and Miss Porter's school 
in Farmington, Connecticut, was selected. Here she stood well in her classes, 
winning the affection and respect of teachers and pupils. One of her fellow-students 
said that when some act which would be as well left undone was contemplated, 
Caroline's words, "I wouldn't do that," so earnestly and seriously spoken were 
sufficient to restrain. 

At Farmington she rode, an exercise she delighted in, and in which she ex- 
celled. She often spoke of happy early morning rides through the country roads 
and under the pine trees where beds of pink lady's slippers grew. A frequent 



10 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

companion was her cousin, Grace Dodge, who later in life took such a leading part 
in helpful work in New York, especially in connection with Teachers College and 
in the broadening out of the Young Women's Christian Association which enabled 
it to do such wonderful work in the late war. 

On her sixteenth birthday Miss Stokes united with the Madison Square 
Presbyterian Church, of which Dr. William Adams was then the pastor. On 
uniting with the church she wrote in her journal: "0 Dear Blessed Jesus, I wish 
to give myself away, body and soul, to the Blessed Saviour who has died 
for me. O Blessed Saviour, help me; give me the peace which the world 
cannot impart; keep me for thine own. After the communion I feel, dear Jesus, 
how sweet it is to give myself to Thee. May I never regret this day, keep me 
holy." The closing night of her seventeenth year she wrote: "What have I done 
this year to make any one better or happier? Have I grown better myself .?• Oh, 
may I spend the coming year more to God's glory and my own happiness." On 
her eighteenth birthday she wrote: "With God's help I will endeavor to live the 
years that still remain with a fixed and determined purpose to do my duty, no 
matter how hard or disagreeable that duty may be." 

In her journal was found the following, which was written the night after she 
had heard her father's wishes as expressed in his will. "Today we have listened 
to father's last wishes in regard to earthly things . . . and before I sleep I want to 
renewedly dedicate myself and all that I have to God and ask that He will show me 
just how He would have me use what He has entrusted to my care. May I re- 
member that I must give an account of my stewardship and may I in future live 
to God's glory." 

In 1882 at Newport she wrote: "I do want to be useful." Later in life when 
away from New York she repeatedly attended the Episcopal Chiu-ch and was very 
much attached to its services. She also, like her mother, felt that the different 
parts of the Christian church should be united, and was in sympathy with and 
helped the various branches of the church. 

Miss Stokes was not fond of city life, and on returning to New York from 
Farmington she was not altogether happy. The feeling of the limited space, the 
poverty and sorrow of the world, often oppressed her. She wrote in her journal, 
December 2, 1873: "I do not think I like living in a city; there is so much sorrow, 
sin and distress on every side that the little one can do seems to make little or no 
impression, and it makes me unhappy to see all the trouble and not do anything 
to relieve it." She began to try and remove the sorrow and wrong that she saw 
about her. She taught classes in the Sunday School and sewing school at the 
Phelps Mission, entering into the lives of her pupils, being their friend and adviser 
all through her life. She was a member of the Farmington Sewing Class, went 
once a week to a club for working girls, and later became a manager of the Peabody 
Home for Aged and Infirm Women. When Mr. Dwight L. Moody held his first 
meetings in New York, he and Mr. Sankey took Sunday supper at the home of 



INTRODUCTION 11 

Mr. and Mrs. James Stokes, and Miss Stokes helped in the services held in the 
old Madison Square Garden. 

Two characteristics of Miss Stokes M'ere definiteness and ability to make quick 
and accurate decisions. She had a logical mind, a keen insight into character, 
wanting always to see things exactly as they were, and a delicate sense of humor. 
Whether in judging the character of people, in making political decisions, in judging 
what was beautiful in nature and art, or in deciding what was right in conduct. 
Miss Stokes came to her own conclusions and did not blindly accept the views or 
opinions of others, although taking them into consideration. She had, especially in 
the later years of her life, a great love for nature. Her face would glow with pleasure 
on seeing beautiful scenery or hearing of a noble deed. She was artistic in tem- 
perament and painted in water colors and etched. She was interested in the 
wild flowers and birds, and joined in giving a fund to the New York Botanical 
Garden for the preservation of wild flowers. She also gave a fund for the protection 
of wild birds. In this country, and wherever she traveled, she helped to forward 
humane treatment of animals. Her whole nature was very intense; either sorrow 
or happiness affected her deeply. Her love of justice was deep and strong, and 
the definite purpose of her life was to keep God's commandments. The text she 
repeated more constantly than any other was, "What doth the Lord require of thee, 
but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.''" Next 
to the strong desire to do right came the wish to help others to help themselves, 
or practical charity as she called it, and to help them to lead Christ-like lives. 
She followed her Master, going about doing good. 

Miss Stokes was naturally interested in the Negro race. Her grandfather, 
Anson G. Phelps, when president of the New York Colonization Society, helped 
to establish the Republic of Liberia. Its first president, J. J. Roberts, made long 
visits with his wife at the homes of Anson G. Phelps and James Stokes. In 1893 
Miss Stokes, during a trip abroad, had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Roberts, then 
living in London. The first Liberian flag was made at the home of Mr. and Mrs. 
James Stokes. 

Miss Stokes was familiar with the conditions in the South and had visited the 
more important schools for the education of colored people and Indians. She 
had traveled from Hampton to Tuskegee, the child of Hampton. She had visited 
Calhoun, although a freshet had broken down the bridge over which she was to 
drive and caused the river to cover the low lands, obliging her to make a wide 
detour. But this did not discourage her, and she proceeded until she reached the 
school, although it took a day longer. She made this journey by carriage so as to 
better see conditions in the surrounding country. While at Calhoun she sent an 
account of the school with illustrations to The Churchman. 

Among her gifts to the Negro race were an organ to Haines Industrial School, 
and the Roberts Memorial Scholarship to Tuskegee Institute; she joined in giving 
to Tuskegee bathhouses, entrance gates, Dorothy Hall — an industrial building for 



12 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

girls — and the chapel. To the New York Colored Orphan Asylum she joined in 
giving a cottage in memory of her mother. 

While spending a winter in Asheville, North Carolina, she more fully realized 
the need of education for the white population, both North and South, living away 
from towns. She also felt the responsibility of developing the Indian, the original 
inhabitant of our country, and she gave aid to Indian education at Hampton and 
to the work for Indians in California. 

While a child she felt the need of better housing for the poor of New York. 
When the Improved Dwellings Association was formed, her mother became a 
stockholder, and years afterward Miss Stokes took great interest in the develop- 
ment of the City and Subm-ban Homes Company. She proposed to a member of 
her family to join with her in building two improved tenements and to put them 
under the care of this Company, which was done. They were designed especially 
for the use of colored people, and were erected in a district where large numbers 
of colored people lived. She gave the name of "Tuskegee" to these two buildings. 

Through Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell she became especially interested in 
Civil Service Reform, and was glad to help by holding a meeting in her home on 
Madison Square, where Theodore Roosevelt, then Police Commissioner, spoke. 

After the death of Miss Stokes' parents she traveled extensively. A journey 
was made around the world. Wherever she went she investigated philanthropic 
and Christian work and aided where her judgment approved. During her travels 
she gave away Testaments and good books where she saw the need. While in 
India the plague was raging in some parts, and she offered her services to the 
hospital at Bombay under the management of an English Protestant Sisterhood. 
She very regretfully decided not to go to the hospital when the Sisters expressed 
their unwillingness to take the responsibility of having so inexperienced a person 
in the hospital who could not speak the language, and when she found that her 
family would remain in India exposed to the plague if she remained. She joined 
with her family in supplying means for one or two extra nurses for the hospital, 
and for years she corresponded with the Mother Superior. 

Miss Stokes had looked forward with deep interest to a journey through Pales- 
tine. Six weeks of this joiu-ney were spent in tent life. Referring to Jerusalem, 
she writes to a friend: "I am thankful to have had a very beautiful approach to 
the city: for I had a horse meet me some distance outside of the walls, and rode 
through the Damascus Gate directly to the Mount of Olives, where just at sunset 
the city is seen in its fullest beauty, and it seemed very appropriate to sing, aU 
by myself, before joining the others, 'Jerusalem the Golden,' though that, of 
course, refers to a far more perfect 'Holy City.'" 

She was interested in the MacAll Mission in France from its commencement. 
During a winter in Tangiers she constantly visited a prison which was in a wretched 
condition and helped toward its amelioration. She was also much interested in 
the hospital there under English management. For years she helped toward the 



INTRODUCTION 13 

salary of a medical missionary in Egypt and joined in giving land and a building 
for an Italian boys' school on the hills outside of Florence. She gave funds to 
start a training school for mu-ses in connection with the American College in Beirut. 
She arranged with Dr. Percival, Head Master of Rugby, England, whom she met 
at Chautauqua in the summer of 1901, to have a medallion placed in Rugby Chapel 
in memory of Arthur Clough, whose poems she greatly enjoyed. 

Not long after her return from the trip around the world, Miss Stokes was 
obliged by ill health to give up active work and spent most of the remaining years 
of her life in California. She bore ill health with wonderful bravery and cheerfulness, 
scarcely ever referring to it. 

She wrote during this period a charming novel, a story containing many of the 
incidents of her journey around the world. The characters were drawn clearly 
and cleverly, the descriptions of scenery were accurate, and a delightful sense of 
humor runs through the story. She prepared an interesting book of Bible texts 
called "Heaven the Country, Christ the Way," leaving alternate blank pages on 
which to write accounts of travels, or selections which the reader might wish to 
preserve. 

Miss Stokes read much, and although leading a very busy life, the love of read- 
ing was so keen that she found time to read most that was good in modern literature, 
and a great deal in the standard books of the past. 

She was in the habit of destroying most of her letters, but in years of ill health 
they accumulated, and from these and the knowledge of her friends it would seem 
that no day passed without some kindness done, some helpful word said or written. 
She taught a class of children on Sundays who came to her house up to the time of 
her death. The following lines found among her papers indicate her attitude of 
mind toward following duty under difficulties : 

"But tasks, in hours of insight willed, 
Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled." 

Among Miss Stokes' more important public gifts not already mentioned are 
the following: 

To New York she gave public baths, and, with a member of her family, built 
St. Paul's Chapel for Columbia University. 

Seeing the need of a rest room and restaurant in the lower part of the city 
for business women, she joined with another member of her family in opening one. 
Later, when Dr. Geer, the earnest and devoted rector of St. Paul's, wished to open 
a day and night rest room and restaurant for girls who were employed downtown, 
she at once wrote him offering to join in giving the assistance he needed to start 
this work. 

She also gave toward a new building for the Peabody Home for Aged and 
Infirm Women. 

In her will. Miss Stokes left many gifts to individuals and charities, and 



14 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

established the Phelps-Stokes Fund to carry on the interests she had furthered 
during her life. 

To the city of Ansonia, Conn., she gave a Public Library in memory of her 
grandfather, Anson G. Phelps, founder of the town, and her father and mother; 
and also a fountain in connection with the Library in memory of Anne Sewall. 

She joined with another in building Woodbridge Hall, the administration 
building of Yale University, and in giving Memorial Gates to the Old South 
Church Cemetery in Hartford, Conn., in memory of her ancestor. Governor John 
Haynes. 

She also gave to New York a wagon called "The Fire Fly," which is still doing 
good work in going to places where drivers and other men congregate and furnish- 
ing them with hot coffee and sandwiches at hours of the day and night when most 
needed. 

In appearance Miss Stokes was handsome and distinguished, with great charm 
of personality. She was attractive at all times, whether in her simple, everyday 
dress, or in white satin and old lace, as on the occasion of her presentation to Queen 
Margherita of Italy. In a long camping journey through Palestine she rode an 
easy-gaited, well-made bay, and in her well-fitting riding habit, her panama hat 
wound around with soft white muslin, almost always with some wild flowers in 
the folds, generally leading the party, erect, her English riding crop in her hand, 
and holding her horse well in, she made a charming picture. 

Her smile v/as especially beautiful. Someone who knew her and was qualified 
to judge said, "It was the smile of angels." A niece wrote: "One can never think 
of her without very especially feeling the rare charm and inspiration of her very 
living, beautiful spirit which always made her smile to me the most beautiful and 
fascinating I have ever seen. Ever since a little child I could never think of Aunt 
Carrie without seeming to see her smile in that radiant way that seemed to go 
straight to one's very heart and made you feel that she at once understood you in 
a very especial way." 

The last winter of her life was spent in her home at Redlands, California. 
Ill health did not prevent her enjoying driving tours and spending days out of 
doors among the beautiful scenery of the mountains. She died in Redlands, 
April 26, 1909. The last day of her life here was spent from early morning until 
sunset in kind, thoughtful deeds for others, and as the sun set behind the moun- 
tains her spirit passed peacefully to the Father's Other Home, and there came to 
her that "Peace with Joy" which she had herself asked for in a poem she had 
written : 

God grant when life is ended, 

And day's long work is done. 
True Peace with Joy eternal. 
Shall come with setting sun. 

Olivia E. Phelps Stokes. 



INTRODUCTION 15 



HISTORY OF THE PHELPS-STOKES FUND 

The seventeenth clause of the will of Caroline Phelps Stokes read in part as 
follows: 

After all bequests and devises heretofore made in this will shall have been first paid by 
my executors, I direct that aU my residuary estate of whatever kind and description and 
wheresoever situated and however evidenced shall be given by my executors to the following 
persons or such of them as may be hving at the time of my death whom with their successors 
I appoint trustees to hold the same in trust forever to constitute a fund to be known as the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund, namely: The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York City, for the 
time being, the Chancellor of the University of the City of New York for the time being, 
the Reverend Dr. Lyman Abbott of Brooklyn, Ohvia Egleston Phelps Stokes, I. Newton 
Phelps Stokes, Helen Olivia Phelps Stokes, F. Louis Slade, Mabel Slade, Caroline M. Phelps 
Stokes, Grace H. Dodge and Arthiu Curtiss James, to be invested and kept invested by them 
and their successors, the interest and net income of such fund to be used by them and their 
successors for the erection or improvement of tenement house dwellings in New York City 
for the poor families of New York City and for educational purposes in the education of 
negroes both in Africa and the United States, North American Indians and needy and 
deserving white students. 

First Meeting of Trustees 

In accordance with the terms of this will the persons named as Trustees of the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund met at the residence of Anson Phelps Stokes, 230 Madison 
Avenue, New York, April 28, 1910. This meeting was called by Mr. Anson Phelps 
Stokes and Miss Olivia E. P. Stokes. On motion Bishop Greer was elected tempor- 
ary chairman, and Francis Louis Slade temporary secretary. Mr. Anson Phelps 
Stokes read a statement in regard to the will of his sister, Caroline Phelps Stokes, 
and Mr. I. N. Phelps Stokes read some brief extracts from some of her writings 
showing her motives in the creation of the Trust, and also a brief sketch of her life. 

Three resignations of the Trustees named in the will were then presented, as 
follows: Rev. Lyman Abbott, Arthur Curtiss James, and Mabel Slade Arbuthnot. 
To fill these vacancies the following persons were elected as members of the Board 
of Trustees: Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr., Edward W. Sheldon, and John Sherman 
Hoyt. 

At this first meeting it was 

Resolved, that the Trustees appoint a Committee on Plan and Scope to report on details 
of organization, etc., with recommendations to the next meeting of the Trustees, and in the 
interim to receive and take necessary action upon correspondence, and to employ therefor 
clerical help if necessary. 

Miss O. E. Phelps Stokes was elected chairman of this committee, and the 
following additional members were named: I. N. Phelps Stokes, vice-chairman; 
F. L. Slade, treasurer; Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr., secretary; and Helen O. 
Phelps Stokes. 



16 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

At a subsequent meeting the Committee on Plan and Scope recommended 
the appointment of an Executive Committee, a Committee on Education, and a 
Committee on Housing, each of the latter committees to consist of two members 
of the Executive Committee and one member of the Board of Trustees not a member 
of the Executive Committee. It was suggested by Miss Olivia Stokes that it might 
be appropriate for the board always to include a woman. These recommendations 
were approved by the Trustees. 

Act of Incorporation 

The Trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund were incorporated by the Legislature 
of the State of New York on May 10, 1911. The act of incorporation follows the 
general provisions of Miss Stokes' will and indicates the breadth of her educational 
and philanthropic interests. It reads as follows : 

An act to incorporate the Trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. The people of the State 
of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : 

Section I. David H. Greer, John MacCracken, OUvia Egleston Phelps Stokes, Isaac 
Newton Phelps Stokes, Helen Olivia Phelps Stokes, Francis Louis Slade, Caroline M. Phelps 
Stokes Hunter, Grace H. Dodge, Anson Phelps Stokes, Junior, John Sherman Hoyt and 
Edward W. Sheldon, together with such persons as they may associate with themselves and 
their successors, are hereby constituted a body corporate by the name of The Trustees of the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund for the purpose of receiving the trust estate, property and funds now 
in the hands of the above named persons as trustees or hereafter received by them under 
the seventeenth clause of the will of Caroline Phelps Stokes, deceased, dated June twenty- 
nine, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, and admitted to probate by the surrogates' court 
of New York County, on November nine, nineteen hundred and nine, which trust estate, 
property and funds such testamentary trustees are hereby authorized to convey, transfer 
and set over to such corporation, and for the purpose of receiving any other fimds which 
may hereafter be given to such corporation and maintaining such fund or funds and investing 
the same and applying the income thereof to the erection and improvement of tenement 
house dwellings in the city of New York for the poor families of that city, either directly or 
by the acquisition of the capital stock or obligations of any other corporation organized 
for that purpose; and for the education of negroes, both in Africa and the United States, 
North American Indians and needy and deserving white students, through industrial schools, 
the founding of scholarships, and the erection or endowment of school buildings or chapels. 
It shall be within the purpose of said corporation to use any means to such ends which shall 
from time to time seem expedient to its members or trustees including research, publication, 
the establishment and maintenance of charitable or benevolent activities, agencies and 
institutions, and the- aid of any such activities, agencies or institutions already established. 

Section II. The corporation hereby formed shall have power to take and hold by 
bequest, devise, gift, purchase or lease either absolutely or in trust for any of its purposes any 
property, real or personal, without hmitation as to amount or value except such limitation, 
if any, as the legislature has heretofore imposed or may hereafter impose; to lease, mortgage, 
improve, exchange, sell, convey or dispose of such property and to invest and reinvest 
the principal and income thereof and expend the principal and income in such manner as 



INTRODUCTION 17 

in the judgment of its trustees will best promote its objects. It shall have all the power and 
be subject to all the restrictions which now pertain by law to membership corporations so 
far as the same are applicable thereto, and are not inconsistent with the provisions of this act. 

Section IU. The persons named in section one of this act shall constitute the first board 
of trustees and the members of the corporation. Vacancies among the trustees or members 
shall be filled by remaining trustees in such manner as the by-laws of the corporation shall 
prescribe. Said persons or a majority of them shall hold a meeting, elect officers and adopt 
by-laws not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the state. The by-laws shall pre- 
scribe the number of trustees by whom the affairs and business of the corporation shall be 
managed, the number of members who shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of 
business at meetings of the corporation, the powers and the manner of selection of the trustees 
and officers of the corporation and any other provisions for the management and disposition 
of the property and the regulation of the affairs of the corporation which may be deemed 
expedient. 

Section FV. This act shaU take effect immediately. 

In pursuance to the authority conferred upon the Trustees by the Act of In- 
corporation the Trust Estate was conveyed to them by an Act of Conveyance on 
May 23, 1911. 

Final Report of Committee on Plan and Scope 

At a meeting held May 24, 1911, a report of the Committee on Plan and Scope, 
containing the following recommendations, was presented by Mr. I. N. Phelps 
Stokes, who had been elected chairman upon the resignation of Miss Olivia E. 
Phelps Stokes. His report duly approved. It provided : 

1. That in providing for the establishment of the Phelps-Stokes Fund the testatrix 
showed a special, although by no means an exclusive, interest in Negro education. 

2. That it is wise for this board to dispense its philanthropy as far as possible through 
existing institutions of proven experience and of assured future stability. 

3. That the cooperation of the best white citizens of the South is of prime importance 
in solving the problem of Negro education. 

4. That the board will be justified in meeting occasionally the whole or a part of the 
expense of securing investigation and reports on educational institutions or problems, when 
these are thought to be of great significance. 

Committee on Education 

At a meeting of the Trustees on November 20, 1912, it was definitely voted to 
make a study of Negro education in the United States. 

Voted: to authorize the Committee on Education to appoint an agent of the Board 
... to make a field study of Negro education. 

Voted : to appropriate a sum not to exceed $4,500 for the present fiscal year for the 
visitation by the board's agent of all Negro colleges and selected Negro schools in the United 
States, and for the preparation of a report on their work, condition, needs, etc., together with 
such discussion as may seem advisable. 

Voted: to authorize the treasurer to make such disbursements for salaries, clerical 



18 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

expenses, travel, etc., necessary for the execution of this work and within the total $8,000 
appropriation, as may be approved by the Committee on Education. 

Voted : to refer to the Committee on Education with power the drawing up of instructions 
for its agent and the making of aU arrangements for the proposed survey, including possible 
cooperation with the United States Bureau of Education, the Slater Fund and other agencies. 

This action was taken by the Trustees after the Committee on Education had 
consulted with such representative leaders in southern education as the late Edgar 
Gardner Murphy, of Birmingham, Alabama; James H. Dillard, of the Jeanes 
Fund and the Slater Board; the late HoUis Burke Frissell, of Hampton Institute; 
and the late Booker T. Washington, of Tuskegee Institute. The Trustees believed 
that such a siu-vey and report on existing conditions would prove very helpful 
to them in the administration of the trust, besides furnishing valuable information 
to many other groups. A cooperative arrangement with the United States Bureau 
of Education was immediately established. A memorandum, drawn up by the 
Bureau of Education and the Trustees of the Board at the time this joint work was 
begun, and intended for use in answering inquiries, is here reproduced as showing 
the origin and plan of the survey : 

The United States Bureau of Education in cooperation with the Phelps-Stokes Fund is 
now making a comprehensive study of the private and higher schools for colored people. 
This study is undertaken in response to numerous and insistent demands for knowledge of 
these schools, the number of which is constantly increasing. Thoughtful people of the North 
and of the South, white and colored, are more and more puzzled as to the merits and demerits 
of the many appeals for money and sympathy in behalf of all sorts and conditions of institu- 
tions for the improvement of Negroes. Letters from state superintendents of education in 
the South emphasize the need of a complete survey of the whole field. At a recent conference 
of the representatives of some of these schools held in New York, it was the consensus of 
opinion that there is much duplication of effort in some sections but much more of neglect 
in many other sections. Every educational board interested in the colored people and 
almost every individual who contributes to this cause is calling for information. After 
considerable discussion of this need by Dr. DHIard of the Jeanes Fund and the Slater Board, 
and by other representatives of the Conference for Education in the South, it was decided to 
appeal to the United States Commissioner of Education for a thorough study of the private 
and higher schools for Negroes. 

A remarkable evidence of the importance of this survey is the fact that about the same 
time two other important organizations interested in colored schools decided to assemble 
information on this subject. Dr. J. H. Dillard, secretary of the Slater Board, obtained 
permission of that body to begin the study. It was at this time also that the trustees of the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund, confronted by appeals from all sorts and conditions of schools, decided 
to make a thorough survey of the situation. 

The cooperation of the Bureau of Education and the Phelps-Stokes Fund is the result 
of the close relationship of the representatives of the Slater Board, the Conference for Educa- 
tion in the South, and the trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund with each other and with 
Commissioner Claxton. Through this cooperation unnecessary duplication is avoided and 
time, effort, and money are saved. 



INTRODUCTION 19 

The main purpose was to supply through an impartial investigation a body of 
facts which should be available to all interested, showing the status of Negro educa- 
tion, by an examination of the various colleges and public and private schools for 
colored youth in the United States. It was believed, and the results of the ex- 
amination have confirmed the belief, that there is no more important agency to 
bring about the improvement of education than dignified publicity regarding 
educational conditions. It brings good institutions and good methods to the 
favorable attention of patrons, voters, and teachers everywhere, and similarly, 
by disclosing the actual facts, shows what institutions and methods are unworthy 
of support. 

The relationship thus established continued from January 1, 1913, to July 1, 
1919. The work accomplished included not only the survey, but the formation 
of the Division of Racial Groups in the Bureau of Education, described at length 
in a later chapter. 

The work of investigation was placed in charge of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, 
the Educational Director of the Fund. His assistants in the work were O. W. 
Taylor, T. J. Woofter, Jr., and Walter B. Hill. 

Committee on Housing 

At a meeting held November 15, 1911, the Executive Committee made the 
following suggestions for the consideration of the Trustees : 

That one-third of the net income accumulated to date, and one-third of the net income 
for the fiscal year beginning November 1, 1911, be set aside to accumulate for housing 
purposes in connection with future recommendations of the Sub-Committee on Housing, and 
that two-thirds be set aside for educational purposes to be determined upon by the board on 
the recommendation of the Committee on Education. 

The recommendations were approved at a meeting of the Trustees on November 
20, 1912, and it was voted: 

That the Housing Sub-Committee's proportion of the income be set aside to accumulate 
until further action by the Board of Trustees. 

This action was taken because, m the opinion of the Trustees, the greatly in- 
creased cost of construction made it undesirable to enter upon any building opera- 
tions in the near future. 

In October, 1915, Miss Olivia E. Phelps Stokes gave to the Trustees of the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund two improved tenements which she had built at 339 East 32d 
Street, adjoining the site of the old Anson G. Phelps place on the East River. 

During the survey of Negro schools the Housing Committee, through Mr. A. 
H. Albertson, made a study of buildings and grounds in forty typical institutions 
in the Southern States, with the hope of being able by suggestion or advice to 
improve building conditions in these schools. The work of Mr. Albertson and its 
results are discussed in another chapter of this report. 



20 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

On July 1, 1919, the Fund established educational and research headquarters 
in the MacLachlen Building, Washington, D. C. The executive force is now 
occupied principally in the encouragement of constructive movements required 
by after-war conditions. There is constant and frequent demand for advice as 
to the acute problems of race relations. Plans for the future contemplate a study 
of educational missions in Equatorial and West Africa and a survey of schools 
for the Indians. The Fund is particularly interested in the adaptations required 
in various fields of education, especially those that relate to groups that are in 
any way handicapped. 

POLICIES OF THE FUND 

The policies of the Phelps-Stokes Fund are largely determined by the ideals 
of Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes, the founder. These ideals are strikingly applicable 
not only to the Fund's activities, but also to the perplexing problems of the present 
times. The Fund is fortunate in having had as its founder a woman whose person- 
ality combined the spiritual and the practical enriched by world-wide travel. The 
limited success and frequent failures of those who have depended on any one of 
these elements require no illustration. Religious interest has in too many instances 
been merely a general sentiment blind to the essential forces underlying either the 
good or the bad. Social reform has been often artificial and superficial, depending 
upon organization, and indifferent to the value of individuality in group improve- 
ment. World travel is to many people but an opportunity to satisfy curiosity or 
to find new peoples or places to exploit. The remarkable combination of these 
elements in Miss Stokes' ideals appears both in the terms of her bequest and in her 
activities from girlhood throughout her life. These elements have been clearly 
presented by her sister. Miss Olivia Egleston Phelps Stokes, in the biographical 
sketch.' 

Religion was both the impelling and the controlling power in all her activities. 
She was impelled to action because she was inspired by the spirit of service as re- 
vealed by Jesus Christ and by those who have followed in His footsteps through the 
centuries. She was impelled also by the belief that a human soul is eternal. All 
people are the children of God and not one must be lost if love can give them 
salvation. Color, condition or nationality were no bar to her efforts to help. 
The spirit of the New Testament controlled both her attitude and her work. To 
her "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith." She sought to do her work through education, cooperation and the de- 
velopment of sympathy in human relationship. 

The social expression of this religious life was definite, practical and effective. 
From childhood to the end of her life she was conscious of human needs. In a 



INTRODUCTION 21 

composition on "The Poor," which she wrote when a little girl of eleven years of 
age, she said: 

The poor people suffer much whether in winter or in summer. In summer they are 
ahnost melted with heat, there are so many families crowded into one house. In winter it 
is very difficult to keep from freezing. I think the tenement houses are dreadful places, 
almost as bad as prisons. 

The first policy evolved from this remarkable combination of religion, practical 
interest and world contact is that of the adaptation of all efforts to the needs at 
hand. Tradition, custom or class are not to hamper educational method or religious 
effort. The great danger of all institutions, whether political, religious, educational 
or social, is to crystallize into a set form that has no regard for changing conditions. 
The New Testament is a protest against the crystallization of Old Testament 
methods and ideals. Every institution and every age has its own form of slavish 
conventions. When Christ placed "the child in the midst" of his disciples he 
sought to center their attention on the quality of open-mindedness that is essential 
to all truth. In this lesson, he was the teacher of the great scientists whose success 
has depended upon their determination to recognize the significance of facts re- 
gardless of their origin. The cornerstone of modern science is the universal search 
for truth. The slavery of knowledge in former centuries was in the limitations of 
research to a few recognized regions and phases of the universe. Schools, churches 
and other institutions are still hampered by an over-emphasis upon machinery, 
conventions and doctrines. Too frequently they fail to observe the changed con- 
ditions which time and geographical position have developed. These observations 
and conditions explain the emphasis of the Phelps-Stokes Fund upon careful sur- 
veys of conditions and thorough adaptation of efforts to the needs observed. 

The second policy of the fund is the logical sequence of the first, namely, that 
it endeavors to originate, stimulate and encourage movements and activities that 
are strategic in their influence for social betterment, rather than to maintain these 
movements permanently. The explanation for this policy is not only the limited 
income of the Fund, but the conviction that the continued wisdom and soundness 
of social forces require their financial support and control by the groups most 
concerned. 

The third policy is the recognition of cooperation between racial and national 
groups as a fundamental element in human progress. Study of social conditions 
usually reveals the fact that strife is a result of misunderstanding. A narrow 
view of life inevitably leads to selfishness. Wherever possible the Fund endeavors 
to ascertain the elements that cause misunderstanding and strife. It encourages 
all movements that make for the development of mutual sympathy and cooperation 
for the general good. 

The fourth policy is the use of the Fund without distinction of class, race or 
nationality. The bequest directs that the income shall be used "in the education 
of Negroes both in Africa and the United States, North American Indians, and 



22 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

needy and deserving white students." In accordance with this direction, the 
appropriation and the activities of the Fund have been devoted to these groups. 
Owing to the acuteness of race relations in the United States, the larger proportion 
of the income to date has been expended on movements pertaining to the Negroes 
and Whites in America. It is the policy of the Fund, however, to include all 
groups within the scope of its efiforts. 

The pm-poses and policies outlined in this chapter are illustrated in the suc- 
ceeding chapters of this report. In purpose, policies and activities, the Trustees 
and executive officers have made every endeavor to be true to the ideals so beauti- 
fully realized in the life so constantly guided by the prophet's appeal: "What doth 
the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly 
with thy God." 



I 

NEGRO EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES 

The primary value of a survey of Negro education in the United States lies 
in the fact that the educational activities described constitute what is probably 
the most significant effort ever made by a white group powerful in number, wealth, 
education and experience to develop an educational system for and by a black 
group differing widely in origin and type and only recently freed from slavery. 
World history shows that the proximity of such varied groups in the past has 
usually resulted either in the destruction or the enslavement of the weaker or 
smaller group. 

The survey of Negro education is an answer to the world challenge, "How is 
American democracy to meet this test of its wisdom and idealism.'' Will the people 
of the United States work out an educational policy that will inspire the world to 
a more real sense of interresponsibility.''" While the complete answer to these vital 
questions requires the consideration of many phases of human relations, it is 
probable that the most definite answer is in the study of present policies in the 
education of the Negroes. 

The survey, begun in 1913 with no dream of the complications and responsi- 
bilities that have been developed by the World War, now has increased significance 
and value as a source book both of what to do and what to avoid in race relations 
and in the education of peoples handicapped by causes within or without the 
group. The Round Table, a quarterly review of the British Empire, in the issue 
of December, 1918, asks the vital question: "Is it too much to ask that in this 
crisis of human destiny America shall forget to think of herself, and think rather 
of those infinitely wider interests, to vindicate which she has sent two million 
Americans to Europe, and in doing so has saved freedom for mankind.''" 

The answer to this dramatic question is in the League of Nations and the 
arrangement for mandatories which the United States is morally bound to take as 
America's share in human betterment and in world peace. 

When this responsibility is placed definitely upon us, the most important 
contribution we can make both to the League of Nations and to the mandatories 
especially committed to us is to see that the educational systems of the countries 
concerned are adapted to the needs of the people. Hitherto peace conferences 
and international negotiations have been concerned with government machinery 
for tax-collecting, policing and boundaries, to the exclusion of educational provi- 
sions that prepare the people to use the opportunities provided for them. The 
following statement from one of the leading authorities of the British Empire sup- 
ports the new ideal in convincing words: 

No permanent settlement of the African problem or of the very different problem of the 
Middle East — no settlement, indeed, of the conflict of national ideas and social conceptions 

23 



24 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

between civilized peoples — can be hoped for unless the civilized governments of the world, 
who are responsible for the education of their citizens, establish common machinery for 
adjusting in some measure their educational systems, for considering even such matters as 
school curricula and text-books, and, above all, for coordinating the effect of these systems 
upon more backward peoples. 

The world is more indebted to missionaries and missionary boards than his- 
torians have been able to appreciate. Missionaries both at home and abroad have 
been working out methods which governments must now adopt, adapt and develop 
in dealing with all grades of mandatory arrangements. This is not to maintain 
that missionaries have not made serious mistakes and often been narrow in their 
conception of their work. It is only to give them credit for the fact that they have 
been interested in the development of the people rather than in the machinery of 
government and the resources to be exploited. They have been pioneers and, as 
pioneers, have achieved the successes and made the errors always involved in new 
ventures. With characteristic vision of world affairs it is a missionary writer who 
has shown the deepest appreciation of the significance of the American effort to 
educate the Negroes. In the April, 1918, issue of The International Review of 
Missions, Mr. J. H. Oldham, the editor, discusses both the Phelps-Stokes report on 
"Negro Education in the United States" and Mr. Charles T. Loram's volume on 
"The Education of the Negro." 

A great service has been rendered to missionary educators throughout the world by the publi- 
cation of these volumes. Apart from the practical guidance which they furnish in abundance, 
they exhibit in the attempt to solve one of the ultimate and most baffling problems of human 
society a faith, courage and real, though as yet partial, achievement that must encourage and 
inspire other workers in the cause of human progress. 

The two quarto volumes, entitled "Negro Education," containing one 423 and the other 724 
pages, represent the results of an exhaustive survey of the private and higher schools for colored 
people in the United States undertaken by the American Bureau of Education with the co-opera- 
tion of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. Every institution of importance was personally visited, while the 
larger schools were studied by three or four persons, the visits being made at different periods of 
the year, and studies of typical institutions were made by specialists. Each school visited is 
reported on separately, detailed information being given regarding the character of the education, 
the methods of administration, the attendance, the staff, the finances and the buildings and equip- 
ment, while attached to each report are recommendations made by the commissioners. These 
individual reports, dealing separately with no less than 747 schools, occupy the second volume 
of "Negro Education." They are a model of exact and clear statement, and the reports of the 
best schools present in brief compass the results of hardly-won and tested experience, for which 
educators in other fields will be deeply grateful. The first volume deals in a general way with the 
problems of negro education. It begins with a survey of the situation and of the ed\icational 
facilities provided by the State. Subsequent chapters discuss, in the light of the best and most 
progressive educational thought and experience of America, secondary education (at present 
mainly under private management), college and professional education, the preparation of teachers, 
industrial education, rural education, ownership and control, finance and buildings. The chapter 
on the last named subject was prepared by a member of one of the leading architectural firms in 
New York. A valuable feature of both volumes is the admirable and instructive photographs 
with which they are illustrated. 



NEGRO EDUCATION 25 

Dr. Loram had smaller resources at his disposal in his study of native education in South 
Africa. But the general character, spirit and methods of his work resemble those of the American 
inquiry. A native-born South African, he took his degree at Cambridge University, and held a 
fellowship at Teachers' College in New York. While in the United States he had an opportunity 
of studying the Negro problem, and he is now an inspector of schools in Natal. He was thus well 
equipped for his task, and has not only availed himself of all existing sources of information but 
carried out on his own account a number of statistical and experimental investigations which shed 
fresh light on the questions with which he deals. 

Both publications may be accepted without queston as the most authoritative works on their 
subjects. The purpose of the present review is to call attention to their importance in relation 
to missionary policy. 

It is clear from these volumes that both in America and in South Africa the main impulse in 
the education of the negro has come from Christian missions. In South Africa "to this day all 
but three of the several thousand native schools are conducted by missionary agencies." In the 
Southern States of America the total annual income of the schools maintained by northern phil- 
anthropy is upwards of two and a half million dollars, and by far the greater part of the educational 
opportunities above the elementary grade is provided by these institutions. This proportion is 
bound to change. The education of the negro is being increasingly recognized as a public duty. A 
statement issued by the Southern University Race Commission clearly recognizes that "the South 
cannot realize its destiny if one-third of its population is undeveloped and inefficient." Similarly 
Dr. Loram contends in a weighty chapter that not only the dictates of humanity and of Christi- 
anity but the moral, social and economic interests of the white race require the education of the 
native population of South Africa. The educational task will in the future require the effective 
co-operation of three factors — the State, missionary and philanthropic effort, and the contribution 
of the Negro race. But we must not lose sight of the important historical fact that.the foundations 
of Negro education both in America and in the continent of Africa were laid by Christian mission- 
aries. It is a fresh and signal proof of the influence of Chirst in the life of the world to-day. 

But while Christian missions have been the pioneers in the education of the Negro race, it is 
clear that if their work in the future is to be worthy of the past, they must rise to a new and higher 
conception of their task. Hampton and Tuskegee, which are essentially a creation of the Christian 
spirit though they are not connected with any Christian denomination, are surpassed by no insti- 
tutions in the world in their educational achievements; and in South Africa first-rate work is 
being accomplished at Lovedale, Tiger-Kloof and other missionary institutions. But this cannot 
be claimed for missionary schools as a whole. Both the American report and Dr. Loram, while 
paying the highest tributes to the work of missionary schools, are quite frank in recognizing their 
shortcomings. In the former it is stated that the limitations of the schools maintained by the 
American Churches are "the conservatism of their educational and financial policies," and that 
"they have not sufiSciently recognized the importance of adapting their educational efforts to the 
needs of the pupil and of the community." Attention is also called to the multiplication of 
hundreds of small schools, the average of whose work is so low as to reflect seriously on the wisdom 
of continuing them without a marked increase in the amount of supervision. Dr. Loram asserts 
that some missions have employed untrained and unsuitable agents, that missionaries haves hown 
themselves too ready to break down native customs, good and bad alike, and that they must share 
with the government the blame for transplanting from Europe ready-made systems and methods 
of education without adapting them to a people differing widely in original nature, in environment 
and in future opportunities. 

It is inevitable, as has already been pointed out, that missionary efforts to educate the Negro 
race should be supplemented and out-distanced by the larger resources of the State. Quanti- 
tatively Christian schools mufet become a decreasing factor in Negro education. If they cease to 
be the sole or even the main agency of education, how may they continue to be a vital factor in the 



26 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

regeneration of the race? What is to be their special task and contribution in the changed con. 
ditions? Surely it must be to set a standard and ideal for all education. Christ is the highest 
the world has known, and if Christian schools are to be worthy of their name they must be con- 
spicuous in their power to form strong, unselfish and noble character. To do this, they must be 
alive to all that is best and most progressive in educational thought and practice. That this is 
the true function of missionary schools is suggested in the American report. "The proper 
function of religious boards and philanthropic organizations," it is stated, "is to establish leavening 
centers" (vol. i, p. 144). This pregnant sentence indicates a definite missionary policy which, 
if it is accepted, must have far-reaching consequences, both in the preparation of missionaries and 
in the conduct of educational work. 

What then are the educational principles to which special prominence is given in the volumes 
before us? It is insisted that education must be closely related to the actual life of those who have 
to be taught. It must take account of their instincts, experiences and interests as distinct from 
those of people living in quite different conditions. Its aim must be to equip them for the life 
which they have to live. Hence the main emphasis must be not on a purely literary curriculum, 
such as still prevails in many schools, but on training in such necessities of actual life as health, 
hygiene, the making and keeping of a home, the earning of a livelihood and civic knowledge and 
spirit. Dr. Loram finds the chief explanation of the alleged arrest of mental development of the 
African on reaching puberty in the fact that the courses of study and methods of teaching hitherto 
in use have failed to give the pupils the satisfaction needed to evoke their continued efforts. 
Further, education must take account of the life not only of the individual but of the community. 
The school must always be viewed in relation to the larger life which it exists to serve. This 
principle is recognized in the relation of the reports on individual schools in the second volume of 
Negro Education to their background in county or city, and in the special paragraph devoted 
in each report to the extension work for the improvement of the educational, agricultural, business^ 
home and religious life of the colored people, which is so marked a feature of Hampton and 
Tuskegee. 

This general view of the aims of education explains the place given in these volumes to indus- 
trial and agricultural training. The mind of General Armstrong when he began his work for the 
freed slaves at Hampton seized with remarkable prophetic insight on certain vital principles which 
have now won almost universal recognition. He saw that the training of the mind through 
observation and manual labor is an invaluable means of developing character. "Didactic and dog- 
matic work," he said, "has little to do with the formation of character. That is done by 
making the school a little world in itself. School life should be like real life. ... In all men, 
education is conditioned not alone on an enlightened head and a changed heart, but very largely 
on a routine of industrious habits, which is to character what the foundation is to the pyramid." 
The primary purpose of industrial education is thus the formation of character through habit- 
forming activities in the classroom, the field, the shop and the home. But second only to this is 
the importance of industrial and agricultural training for the future of the Negro race. The 
economic status of the Negro community in the southern states is poor, and the only hope of 
progress lies in training the people to develop the natural resources of the country and to engage in 
industrial pursuits. The same thing is true of the natives of South Africa. It is of course one 
thing to recognize the importance of industrial and agricultural training and quite another to 
provide it or even to get those whom it is intended to benefit to appreciate its value. It is the 
merit of the volumes before us that they furnish for the solution of these diflBculties such help as 
may be gained from long and wide practical experience. 

Another subject of special interest to missionary educators is rural education. In India at 
the present time this is perhaps the greatest and most urgent question with which Christian mis- 
sions have to deal. At the heart of the problem lies the training of teachers, and the provision of 
some means of keeping in touch with them and saving them from the dangers of isolation, dis- 



^ NEGRO EDUCATION 27 

couragement and mental and moral stagnation. One of the most promising developments in 
recent years in the southern states of America has been the appointment of Negro supervisors to 
visit the rural schools, introduce suitable forms of industrial work, advise and encourage the teacher 
form parents' clubs and interest the Negro community in the schools. There is the most encour- 
aging testimony to the devotion of these workers and the change brought about by their efforts. 
There is much more of absorbing interest in these volumes on which it is not possible to 
touch. They should be available in the library of every mission. They also deserve the 
attention of missionary administrators and missionary committees at home, who desire that 
Christian education in the mission field should maintain the position it has held in the past 
and bear yet larger fruit in the years to come. 

Mandatory commissions and colonial bm-eaus will more and more find the 
educational activities of private funds and missionary boards a rich field of sug- 
gestions, types and methods for the realization of their responsibilities. While 
the survey of Negro Education in the United States shows that no form of educa- 
tion for Negroes is satisfactorily equipped or supported, it also describes certain 
types of educational effort and certain institutions that have achieved remarkable 
results in fitting the Negroes to deal with the problems confronting them. These 
types and movements are so important as to require at least an outline description 
in a separate chapter on "Educational Adaptations." The private agencies in 
the United States that have made the most notable contributions in the develop- 
ment of educational types are the General Education Board, the Slater Fund, 
the Jeanes Fund, and the Rosen wald rural school building appropriations. These 
agencies have been managed with an educational statesmanship that is worthy of 
study by all persons concerned in education. 

"Who's Who" in Negro Education 
While the primary value of the Sm-vey of Negro Education is that of a source 
book on education and race relations, the purpose M'as to form a "Who's Who" 
among Negro schools. The study was undertaken in response to numerous 
demands for knowledge of these schools. Thoughtful people of the South and of 
the North, white and colored, had long been puzzled as to the merits and demerits 
of the many appeals for money and sympathy in behalf of all sorts and conditions 
of educational institutions for Negroes. Letters from southern state superinten- 
dents of education and m-gent requests for knowledge from chambers of commerce in 
northern cities emphasized the need of a complete survey of the whole field. It 
was found that over $3,000,000 was expended annually for colored schools by 
denominational and private educational boards and by individuals whose knowledge 
of educational conditions was necessarily limited. The accumulation of gifts 
represented a total valuation of $28,496,946 in plant and endowment. 

The schools receiving aid, it was shown, range all the way from institutions of 
the highest efficiency to those whose work is of no value or whose so-called presidents 
or founders deliberately play upon philanthropy for their own personal gain. 
Among the good schools are some that have achieved international fame for pioneer 
service in democratizing education. Others — and these comprise a majority of 



28 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

the institutions — are following the traditional school curriculum with too exclusive 
emphasis upon bookish studies. There are a number of schools whose educational 
results do not merit the cost, failure being due usually to poor management, 
inadequate support, or unfortunate location. 

While actual frauds among Negro schools are few in number, they are very 
active in their appeals to the public. About 1907 a Negro left Brunswick, Ga., to 
raise money to found a "Naval and Industrial School for Colored Youth." For 
seven years he collected money throughout the northern states, obtaining letters 
of introduction from prominent men, until he was convicted in 1915 of "larceny 
by false pretenses." A still more flagrant case is that of the "founder and presi- 
dent" of the so-called Latta University, in Raleigh, N. C. At one time Latta 
began the construction of a crude frame school building, which was never com- 
pleted, and it appears that he employed one teacher and had a few pupils. In 
1903, long after all school work had been abandoned, Latta published a 400-page 
book in which he declared of his school: "It is one of the largest schools of the 
South in every respect, having facilities to accommodate more than 400 students. 
We have 23 buildings on the campus." Another ingenious "principal and founder " 
who had been soliciting money for an alleged school and had received large sums 
from a philanthropic northern woman by claiming he had the endorsement of 
two prominent southern women, when forced to make good his claim as to these 
women, concocted the story that they had gone down with the Titanic. The 
shrewd character of these solicitors is shown in the selection of names for their 
so-called institutions. Most of them realize the interest of white donors in rm-al 
and industrial education and accordingly make large use of these terms. Some 
of them, knowing the strength of the religious appeal, seize upon titles containing 
such words as "Bible school" and "religious training." Others depend on the 
well-known powers of such titles as "temperance," "orphanage," or "rescue home." 
Usually a combination of these terms is used, in order to secure as wide a circle 
of appeal as possible. To create an impression among the colored people, liberal 
use is made of such high-sounding terms as "college" and "university." 

Constructive Purpose 

Throughout the investigation the purpose was constructive. Effort was made 
to determine the real educational needs of the people and the extent to which the 
school work had been adapted to these needs. This required a study of the edu- 
cational objectives of the school as indicated by the course of study, the training 
of the teachers, the vocational choice of the pupils, the condition of the school 
plant, the attitude of the white and colored people of the community toward the 
school, and the work of the former students. Serious attention was given to 
administrative methods, including such elements as bookkeeping and records, 
supervision of teachers and pupils, cleanliness and care of buildings and grounds, 
and economy in building operations. The financial resources and the effectiveness 
of the trustee boards were carefully considered. The possibilities of cooperation 



NEGRO EDUCATION 



between individual schools and groups of schools were constantly in mind. In 
determining the status of individual schools in all the phases enumerated, the study 
was not indiflFerent either to the serious financial limitations of the schools or to 
the wide divergencies in the ideals of those interested in the education of colored 
people. 

The first step in the investigation was the filling of record cards for pupils and 
teachers and a general questionnaire for the school. The students' cards were 
filled by the pupils above the sixth grade. The pupils were assembled so that they 
could write the answers under the personal direction of the agent and thus insure 
uniformity in the reports. The more important facts called for were the attend- 
ance by sex and age, the program of study and work, and the geographical distri- 
bution of the pupils. The accuracy and simplicity of this card system made it 
of great value in determining the status of the school. The important facts 
reported by the teachers on the cards included education, experience, and program 
of work. Comparison of the pupils' and teachers' cards frequently furnished 
interesting views of the policies and management of the institution. 

Financial Support of Negro Education 

The striking facts ascertained in the study of the financial support of Negro 
education were, first, the wide divergencies in the per capita of public school 
expenditures for white and colored children, and, second, the extent to which schools 
for Negroes were dependent upon private aid. Though private aid has been liber- 
ally given and a number of the private institutions do very effective work, Negro 
schools in the aggregate undoubtedly form the most impoverished group of educa- 
tional institutions in the United States. The per capita in the southern states 
was foimd to be $10.32 for each white child and $2.89 for each colored child. The 
per capita figm-es for the different states vary wadely. In the border states, where 
the proportion of Negroes is relatively small, the per capita for Negroes is higher 
than in the other states. The most striking differences, however, are in the 
county expenditures. State school funds are apportioned to each county on the 
basis of population without regard to race. The county officers then divide these 
funds according to their interpretation of the needs of the white and black pupils. 
The result of this appears in the following table for the southern counties arranged 
according to the proportion of Negroes in each county: 



County groups, percentage of 
Negroes in the population 


White 
teachers' 
salaries 


Negro 
teachers' 
salaries 


Per capita, 
White 


Per capita, 
Negro 




$7,755,817 
9,633,674 

12,572,666 

4,574,366 

888,759 


$325,579 
1,196,788 
2,265,945 
1,167,796 
359,800 


$7.96 
9.55 
11.11 
12.53 

22.22 


$7.23 
5.55 
3.19 

1.77 
1.78 













30 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

It will be noted that the per capita in the counties 75 per cent Negro was 
$22.22 for each white child and $1.78 for each colored child. The per capita sums 
for white children decrease and those for colored children increase with considerable 
regularity as the proportion of Negroes becomes smaller. The marked inequalities 
in the counties 75 per cent Negro are partly explained by the necessity of providing 
relatively more schools for the scattered white population. The lower wage scale 
of colored teachers and the lack of high-school provisions also reduce the expendi- 
tures for colored schools. It is evident, however, that these explanations by no 
means account for the wide divergencies of the "black -belt" counties. These 
divergencies are further emphasized by the fact that the Southern States appro- 
priate annually $6,429,991 for higher schools for white pupils and only a little over 
a third of a million for higher schools for colored people. The latter include the 
agricultural and mechanical schools, largely maintained by Federal funds, and six 
normal schools of elementary and secondary grade. 

A proper appreciation of the significance of these figures requires the considera- 
tion of at least two facts. The first is, that, although the wealth of the South is 
at present increasing very rapidly, the South has had to maintain a double system 
of schools on the comparatively limited resources of a section largely rural and 
only recently recovered from the burdens of the Civil War. The second fact is 
that, though the per capita for white pupils in the South is four times that for 
Negroes, the per capita in most of the northern states is two and three times that 
for the white pupils in the South. These facts do not justify the present inequalities 
between the expenditures for white and colored pupils. They should, however, 
modify criticism of the situation. When all explanations have been made, the 
inequalities stand as an emphatic appeal to county, state and federal governments 
for larger and more definite interest in Negro education. Among the indications 
of the development of such an interest are the recent improvements in taxation 
systems of some of the states, the increasing effectiveness of the state departments 
of instruction, and the general realization of the economic and hygienic importance 
of the colored people to the South. 

The annual income for current expenses in all private schools for colored people 
is $3,026,460, while the total value of the plant, equipment, and endowment in 
private schools for colored people, as already noted, is $28,496,946. These in- 
stitutions provide the large proportion of all educational opportunities above the 
elementary grades. They offer the bulk of all the instruction in agriculture, in- 
dustry, teacher training, medicine, and religion. Fully one-half of the money that 
has gone into these schools from private sources has been contributed by the white 
religious denominations of the North, a third has been given by independent donors 
and chm-ches, a,nd one-sixth by colored denominations. Southern white denomina- 
tions maintain two schools for Negroes. 

The multiplication of private schools for Negroes and the wide publicity at- 
tending gifts from the North have sometimes created the impression that the 



NEGRO EDUCATION 31 

private funds given to colored schools make up for the inequalities in the public 
appropriation for the white and colored youth. In view of this impression, it is 
important to note that a study of private contributions shows that even the private 
financial resources available for white schools are greater than those for colored 
schools. 

The total number of private schools for colored people is 625. Of these, 266 
may be regarded as important parts of the educational system of their respective 
states. The remaining 359 are regarded as comparatively unimportant. Some 
of them are justified only on denominational grounds. The majority are so 
hampered by small income or poor management that the states receive little 
good from them. 

In view of the frequency of the terms "academy," "college," and "university," 
in the names of these institutions, it is important to note that over 75 per cent of 
all their pupils are elementary. The total attendance in 1914-15 was 83,679, 
of whom 70,564 were elementary, 11,527 secondary, and only 1,588 of college grade. 
Though private funds have been given with liberality, the number of pupils in 
private schools is only 4 per cent of the number of Negro children 6 to 14 years of 
age and 7 per cent of all children attending elementary schools. It is apparent, 
therefore, that the masses of the colored people cannot be educated in private 
schools, but must be educated mainly in public or tax-supported schools. 

Preparation and Distribution of the Report 

The Survey was a cooperative undertaking between the Phelps-Stokes Fund 
and the United States Bureau of Education. The salaries and travelling expenses 
of the field and oflSce force, amounting approximately to $50,000, were paid by the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund. The Bureau of Education furnished office room and office 
equipment, and paid all printing expenses. The Report was printed in two quarto 
volumes of 423 and 724 pages. The edition included 12,500 of each volume, and 
500 to 1000 reprints of separate chapters. The edition of the volumes printed is 
now practically exhausted. Some of the chapter reprints are also out of print. 
All possible care was exercised so that the volumes would be distributed to those 
who would make the largest use of them. The first step in the distribution was 
the preparation of an extended list of persons concerned in Negro education. 
This list included trustees and officers of the colored schools, representative clergy- 
men, prominent educators, officers of chambers of commerce and civic associations, 
philanthropists, students of social conditions, and editorial writers. A brief 
description of the volumes was then mailed to each name with the statement 
that persons desiring the volumes must apply to the Bureau of Education. 

The reception of the report by the public was most satisfactory. Adverse 
criticism was limited to schools unfavorably described and to a few Negroes who 
feared that the report did not give sufficient recognition to college education. 
The remarkable review by Mr. J. H. Oldham, of England, has been reprinted in 



32 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

this chapter. A few quotations from many letters and press comments are given 
below to illustrate the friendly appreciation both from white and colored students 
of education and race relations : 

Mr. Jackson Davis, General Field Agent of the General Education Board, traveling 
widely through the area surveyed, and known for his thorough acquaintance with Negro 
Education: 

"The books have been in constant use since their arrival. The thorough survey that you 
have made of the whole field of Negro education including the work of pubKc and private 
schools of all denominations, societies and boards is a work of fundamental importance. It 
brings forth very clearly the need of better coordination and therefore hastens the time of 
more wisely directed efforts in every field." 

Dr. Abraham Flexner, secretary of the General Education Board, of international 
fame for his study of medical education: 

"... an epoch-making contribution to the subject of Negro education as well as a most 
important contribution to the general subject of education in this country. The book will 
never cease to figure as a source book of information. I congratulate you on the achieve- 
ment of a task that has required infinite patience, skill, tact and devotion." 

Dr. Robert R. Moton, successor of Dr. Booker T. Washington as -principal of Tus- 
kegee Institute: 

"It is most illuminating and in a real sense constructive. This is a very good time to 
have it appear, because the South was never more anxious than at present to know the exact 
facts regarding the Negro at all angles." 

Dr. Talcott Williams, Director of the School of Journalism of Columbia University, 
noted for his intimate knowledge of national and international problems: 

"I think it will be for years to come the datum line from which men reckon the rise of 
the Negro." 

Professor Charles F. A. Currier, of the Department of History and Political 
Science of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 

"The Bulletin on Negro Education . . . will be of especial service to me in my treatment 
of the Negro problem in my course in United States History." 

Professor Francis G. Peabody, Professor of Christian Morals of Harvard Uni- 
versity: 

"... congratulate you on so lucid and convincing a statement. The whole work in 
which you have been engaged seems to me of national importance, well conceived and well 
done." 

Misses Alice White and Margaret Beard, principals of the Montgomery Industrial 
School, white women who labored through the decades with practically no recognition 
of their patriotic and Christian service: 



NEGRO EDUCATION 33 

"We realize that we are indebted to you, and want to express our warmest thanks. You 
can't realize how much it means to us who have these thirty years had comparatively little 
to do with. Your judgment of the work has helped us lift, and we trust in coming days we 
may continue to merit what you have so kindly said about the school." 
The "News Leader," Richmond, Virginia, August 9, 1917: 

"A work that is commanding attention all over the country is the report on Negro educa- 
tion just issued in two stout volumes by the United States Bureau of Education. The study 
embraces close scrutiny of every private school and every higher public school for colored 
people in the entire nation. Field investigation began four years ago, and the publication 
has claimed the constant attention of a large staff of experts. . . . The constructive purpose 
comes out finely in this statesman-like exposition. A high plane of thought and expression 
is held to, thus eliminating from the equation many stumbling blocks to less trustworthy 
interpretations of the problem of the colored race. 

"The second volume, which will be found most interesting to particular localities, lays 
bare the basis of the conclusions set forth in the first volume. It consists in the facts gained 
in the combing of individual institutions. No desk, blackboard, fence, dormitory, teacher 
or pupil has been left unexamined. The ponds have been dragged. Every effort has been 
made to verify the facts adduced, sometimes by repeated visits, sometimes by letter. 

"It is the general thesis of this thorough study that whatever quarrel there may be with 
the propriety and usefulness of education for the Negro on moral, political or more strictly 
social grounds, there can be no logical objection to making the Negro a larger contribution 
to the economic welfare of his own race and to the community in which he lives. If his earn- 
ings can be increased from 75 cents a day to $1.50 a day everybody is benefited and nobody 
is injured." 

From the same paper on another date: 

"In view of the recent flocking of Negroes to northern states and the oft repeated inti- 
mation that their migration is due to a lack of educational and social advantages in the South, 
the question as to what the Southern people should actually do for their 'brethren in black' 
has become rather an acute one. If the problem is to be solved by the schools — and assuredly 
the schools seem to offer the best solution — it would be wise for thoughtful minds to ponder 
the methods of mental and manual training now prevailing in sections where the blacks are 
found in greatest numbers. 

"Fortunately much information along this line is now offered in peculiarly well-considered 
tactful and instructive form- by the report on Negro Education just issued by the United 
States Bureau of Education, Washington. The Southern people, it must be admitted, have 
not hitherto lacked for advice concerning their ebon wards, but it has usually come from 
biased northern sources and too often it has been irritating in its cocksureness and narrow 
sectional viewpoint. No such criticism, however, can be laid at the doors of those responsible 
for the ambitious publication here referred to. . . . 

"The work, which apparently ignores no phase of Negro education, was made possible 
by cooperation between the Commissioner of Education and the Phelps-Stokes Fund of 
New York. Not only is the report a history of the past half century of endeavor in behalf of 
Negro education and a detailed stocktaking of the present conditions, but it is also a hand- 
book for the further development of public and private schools for the 8,500,000 colored 
people of the South." 



34 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

The New York Evening Post: 

"The growing body of public opinion, North and South, that is vitally interested in seeing 
the United States prosecute the war and food problem to a successful issue, will find many 
of its questions more authoritatively answered and a more comprehensive program for 
constructive remedy outlined in a report just issued by the United States Bureau of Educa- 
tion. This report is described as a study of the private and higher schools for the education 
of the colored people, but in reality it presents the first complete picture which the country 
has had of just what is being done to train the backbone of the South's labor supply to work 
according to twentieth-century standards of productivity. The investigation has been in 
progress for the past three years under the joint auspices of Commissioner P. P. Claxton 
of the Federal Bureau and the Phelps-Stokes Fund of New York. Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, 
specialist in the education of racial groups, not only directed the whole study, but did much 
of the field work himself and then arranged and interpreted in a two-volume report the 
immense mass of material collected. Through his efforts and his sympathetic understand- 
ingpf the various forces at work, there is now available for the first time in the half century 
of emancipation for the Negroes a survey of exactly what has been done and is now in 
progress — and is still left undone — for the training of the 8,500,000 black people in the South 
to produce not only for their personal needs, but for a surplus for the nation." 

The "Fish University News," Nashville, Tennessee: 

"The United States Bureau of Education has put its finger on every Negro school above 
the elementary grades in every commimity in every State of the Union, and has pointed out 
definitely and fearlessly their major defects or their outstanding excellencies. 

"The Bulletin of Negro Education (1916, Nos. 38 and 39), prepared under the direction 
of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, specialist in the education of race groups, is not only the "Who's 
Who" in Negro schools, but it is also a "Doomsday" book showing who is not who. Regard- 
less of ownership, administration, boards of control, whether white or colored, southern or 
northern, philanthropic or denominational, the report causes each one of the schools 
exammed to pass in review before the reader, and praises it unreservedly or with qualifica- 
tions, or condemns it in the same manner. 

"Four distinct groups must read or consult the report or indict themselves for criminal 
negligence and indifference — i. e., (1) All Negroes; (2) all the white South; (3) all philan- 
thropists who are supporting Negro schools or all boards and agencies acting for these donors; 
and (4) all denominational bodies which are conducting colored schools. 

"Negroes first of all must examine the report because most of the schools are conducted 
by them, and they will want to know the opinion of government experts relative to the differ- 
ent Negro schools. In the next place, running through the whole report is a thread of definite 
suggestion as to the future lines of work which the Bureau endorses for all Negro schools. 
No Negro, whether he approves of the suggestion or not, has any right to claim interest in 
his race until he has informed himself of this suggestion looking toward more concrete courses 
of study. 

"Again : Certain schools are condemned outright or their discontinuance is boldy recom- 
mended on prudential grounds. At the same time other schools are warmly commended and 
constructive criticisms are made in each case, making the report by so much an invaluable 
guide for such institutions as care to conform to Federal standards. 



NEGRO EDUCATION 35 

" The white people of the South have in their hands the control of public school education 
for the Negro. The report places on record, not unkindly but impartially, suggestion of the 
inequality of the distribution of the school funds and the poor equipment of the Negro schools. 
More than this : The "land grant " colleges for Negroes in the South are all managed by State 
Boards. In practically every case there is fundamental weakness in the system of control, 
so that these schools have never risen fully to their opportunities. The South will want to 
see the exact criticism, favorable or unfavorable, made on each of these schools and the 
definite recommendations made looking towards improvement and greater efficiency. 

"Besides, since Negroes are inclined to live in those places where there are good schools 
for their children, the southern states, respectively, will be compared with each other by 
colored persons, to the disparagement of those which make poor showing. Southern leaders 
will want to know how the states compare with each other, so that progress may be made in 
this direction in the backward states of this section. 

"Also, since the report practically iudicates by its criticism definite ideals of education 
from the viewpoint of the Bureau, the South, whether it accepts the standards or not, cannot 
afiFord to be ignorant of the standards which the Bureau sets for the schools for Negroes of 
the country. 

"To philanthropic persons and bodies, the report is invaluable. In the past a great host 
of solicitors have almost overwhelmed wealthy contributors to Negro schools; and these 
donors have been in large measure in the dark as to the merits of the various schools for 
which aid has been sought. This need not be so any longer, for every Negro school in the 
classes already indicated is represented and described. 

"The various churches which support schools must examine the report, because in a 
number of cases the educational institutions so supported do not make the very best 
showing. For example, of one of the oldest and best known schools of this type it is said 
that, ' OT\Tng to church politics the institution has been badly managed and its organization 
is not effective,' a serious indictment; and all of the church schools will want to see if they 
have special points of weakness like this or elements of strength which appeal to the 
confidence of the public. 

"The report is certain to 'stir up the lions.' Its conclusions will not be accepted in many 
quarters; and its frank criticisms will not be relished in certain cases; but the helpful sug- 
gestions made all through the volumes will mean much to many worthy schools which have 
not had the benefit of unbiased and constructive criticism. Because of all this, the report will 
be read and consulted as few works touching the Negro have ever been examined ; and there 
is no question but that certain definite good will result to the whole country from the study. 

From an editorial in the New York Age, a paper published for and by Negroes: 

"Self-Help in EnuciTiON — That is 'a truly remarkable achievement,' as Dr. Jones of 
the Bureau of Education terms it, in his report, referred to in another column, treating of the 
development of schools maintained solely through the initiative of Negroes. Half a million 
dollars is the figure at which the voluntary contribution of the race for educational institutions 
is put for each year. This is apart from the other moneys paid in the form of taxes, and is 
a supplementary offering to supply the deficiences of the public funds raised for educational 
purposes. 

"Many interesting and encouraging facts are disclosed by Dr. Jones' investigation, which 



36 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

discusses in a most thorough manner the results accomplished as well as the shortcomings 
to be remedied in the matter of education in the South. 

"The determination of the race has been the quality that most impresses one as a factor 
in the solution of the vast problem presented in the unequal distribution of school funds in 
the South. We find that the allotment for Negro schools is but one-quarter of what it would 
be if the school funds were apportioned between the two races on the basis of population. 
How to remedy and offset this disparity is one of the most pressing questions before us. 

"Earnest and determined appeal to local authorities has been resorted to in some 
localities with encouraging results. When this method fails private contributions have been 
raised to supplement the inadequate provision by public funds. But the determination to 
provide an education cannot be daunted. 

"Dr. Jones' report should receive the careful study of all those interested in the various 
phases of the important subject that he discusses." 

Public recognition of the significance of the report is indicated in the award to 
the Educational Director (June, 1920) of the Grant Squu-es Prize, given every 
fifth year by Columbia University for "Original investigations of a sociological 
character carried on during the five years preceding the award." 



II 

EDUCATIONAL ADAPTIONS 

The most definite contribution of the Survey of Negro Education to educational 
method is the description of what may be called educational adaptations. Among 
the schools and movements described in the report are some that have won national 
and international appreciation for the effectiveness of the results achieved in the 
development of pupils and in the improvement of school-communities. They have 
been pioneers in democratizing education. Civilized society has long been demo- 
cratic in the advocacy of education for all the people, regardless of race, color, and 
previous condition, but in curriculum and method the schools have continued 
to be aristocratic and arbitrary. Subjects introduced in the middle ages to 
meet the needs of one or more classes of the people of that time have been retained 
for their cultural value. Democracy in the content of education demands that the 
curriculum shall impart culture through knowledge and practice related to the 
farm, the shop, the office, and, above all, the home. 

Probably the most striking illustration of this democratic element in education 
is the farm-demonstration movement originated by Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, 
encouraged by the General Education Board, and now applied nationally by the 
United States Department of Agriculture. The fundamental element in the plan 
is Dr. Knapp's principle that the most effective way to teach good farming is to 
prevail upon one farmer in every neighborhood to cultivate an acre of his land 
according to scientific methods of agriculture. The effect of such a plan has been 
that the farmer with the demonstration acre extends the plan to the remainder of 
his farm and the neighboring farmers soon follow his example. It has been shown 
that such an experimental plot is much more eflFective than the distribution of 
printed matter or even explanations by traveling lecturers. The economic and 
educational significance of the farm-demonstration movement is now gradually 
becoming understood. Communities have lifted themselves out of poverty. 
Schools and churches and roads have been built. The general average of com- 
munity welfare has been elevated in many rural districts. Schoolmen have been 
impressed with the value of actual demonstration in instruction and the schools 
are requiring that pupils shall "learn to do by doing." 

The adaptation of education is proceeding in every phase and grade of educa- 
tion. It is most important that teachers shall understand that adaptation does 
not require extensive equipment and large financial resources. The fundamental 
requirement is a consciousness of the real needs of the pupil and the community. 
Those are not meaningless words which Christ spoke when he said, "Blessed are the 
meek, for they shall inherit the earth." The great scientific discoveries have been 
made by those who have heeded the seemingly unimportant elements. Education 



38 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

has been most effective when we have turned aside from systems and curricula and 
have placed the "child in the midst" and have learned from him. No part of the 
life of the pupil and no element in the community must be despised. 

The vocational outlook of the pupils, their homes, their recreations, their 
health, their morals, their disposition must be considered. Likewise there must 
be careful observations of the community, the human groupings, the roads, the 
sanitary arrangements, the pleasure centers, the schools, the churches, and the 
industries. With teachers conscious of these facts, adaptation of every educational 
activity will follow as the day follows the night. 

The following paragraphs present a summary of the ideals and methods that 
illustrate the educational adaptations observed in the sm-vey of Negro Education. 
It has seemed best to arrange the observations under the general types known as 
industrial education, rural education, secondary education and college education. 

Industrial Education 

The following words, spoken by General Armstrong as early as 1870, indicate 
a prophetic understanding of the educational principles and methods that are now 
being adopted by progressive educators throughout the civilized world : 

The education needed is one that touches upon the whole range of life, that aims at the 
formation of good habits and sound principles, that considers the details of each day, that 
enjoins in respect to diet, regularity, proper selection and good cooking; in respect to habits, 
suitable clothing, exercise, cleanliness of persons and quarters and ventilation, also industry 
and thrift; and in respect to all things, intelligent practice and self-restraint. 

In all men, education is conditioned not alone on an enlightened head and a changed heart, 
but very largely on a routine of industrious habits, which is to character what the foundation 
is to the pyramid. The summit should glow with a divine light, interfusing and quahfying 
the whole mass, but it should never be forgotten that it is only upon a foundation of regular 
daily activities that there can be any fine and permanent upbuilding. Morality and in- 
dustry generally go together. 

Though the primary aim of industrial education is the development of sound 
habits of hand and head, the economic advantages are not to be overlooked. No 
group of people can attain a satisfactory position in life until they are able to make 
a reasonable contribution to the economic welfare of their community. The moral 
and civic status is closely related to the economic. 

The phrase "industrial education" as applied to colored schools is very mis- 
leading. While the effective industrial schools are making genuine efforts to 
develop industrial skill, their fundamental purpose is much broader than vocational 
efficiency or the resulting comfort and culture. The underlying principle of these 
schools is the adaptation of educational activities, whether industrial or literary, 
to the needs of the pupil and the community. Leaders in these schools believe 
that education should include not only the head but the hand and the heart. 
The industrial and manual programs of the schools observed require the following 



EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 39 

courses of instruction adapted to the varying needs of the groups whose interest 
is to be awakened and directed: 

1. Simple manual training adapted to boys and girls in elementary schools. 

For boys in elementary grades there should be lessons in woodwork and in 
the repairs about the school, the home, the farm, or the shop. For girls, the 
lessons should center about the care of the home and include practice in cooking 
and sewing. Both boys and girls would gain much from instruction and practice 
in simple carpentry, glazing, chair caning, shoe mending, soldering, repairing 
furniture and windows and locks, and in similar activities entering into the care 
of the home. According to the commission which made a survey of the Butte, 
Mont., schools the "minimum amount of time for handwork in the elementary 
schools should be one-half a day a week through the first six years, and two-half 
days per week in the seventh and eighth grades." 

The essentials of industrial training for elementary schools are outlined in the 
following statement prepared by N. C. Newbold of the North Carolina State de- 
partment of public instruction: 

1. Sanitation and health. — Personal hygiene: Body cleanliness, care of teeth and eyes 
and ears, food and drink. House hygiene: Cleanliness of the house, keeping down dust, elim- 
ination of flies and mosquitoes, and stagnant water on the premises, care of food and water, 
sanitary outhouses. School hygiene: Cleanliness, ventilation, sanitary closets, drinking cups. 

2. Cooking. — Cleanliness of kitchen and utensils, economy of time and material, selection 
of food, serving meals, and care of the dining room. 

3. Sewing. — The various kinds of stitches, mending, plain sewing, making necessary gar- 
ments for everyday wear, fancy sewing and embroidery, cutting and fitting. 

4. Housekeeping and home decoration. — Cleanliness, simplicity, economy, selection of 
furnishings, homemade furniture, decorations and pictures, painting and whitewashing, 
laundering, home amusements. 

5. Manual training. — Simple repairs in wood and iron, use and care of tools, making small 
implements needed in the house and on the farm, lessons in elementary drawing and de- 
signing. 

2. Mechanical practice or household arts, vocational outlook, and elementary economics 

in secondary schools. 

Every secondary and higher school for colored people should enable its pupils 
first to realize vocational possibilities open to them; second, to test their aptitudes 
in different lines of activity; and third, to begin preparation for their life work. 
This requires a knowledge of elementary economics and an opportunity for prac- 
tice in mechanical pursuits or in household arts. Such a broad vocational outlook 
is vital not only to the pupil's personal welfare, but much more to the development 
of an intelligent appreciation of the industrial problems of the masses of the colored 
people. The following quotation from the report of the Commission on Secondarj'^ 
Education of the National Education Association emphasizes the importance of 
these elements in secondary education everywhere: 



40 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

The large number of persons who will eventually enter industrial occupations should 
receive, while they are of secondary school age: 

1. Opportunities for discovering any special aptitude which they may possess. 

2. Opportunities for special preparation for entrance to a skilled trade. 

3. Opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of the principles governing the management, 
supervision, and administration of the business of industry. 

3. Rural or small-town trades offered in small industrial schools. 

There are a number of smaller institutions with genuine interest in industrial 
instruction. In these schools the plant and equipment are usually sufficient to 
teach the simpler phases of the occupations required in rural districts or small 
towns. For the young men, they should endeavor to provide training in the ele- 
ments of carpentry, blacksmithing, bricklaying, cement and concrete construction, 
adapted to small towns. Sound policy demands that the school shall limit its 
instruction according to the equipment, number of teachers, and the enrollment of 
pupils. Pupils who desire to prepare for city occupations or for the more technical 
trades should be urged to prepare for larger trade schools. It is probable that the 
most effective daily program for the smaller industrial schools would provide for a 
half day of classroom work and a half day of practice in the fields and shops every 
day. No single program can possibly meet all conditions. 

4. Trade schools preparing industrial teachers and tradesmen for the mechanical 
pursuits and household arts for women. 

There are at least three essentials of a genuine trade school : 

1. Teachers who combine real mechanical skill and practical knowledge of the 
trades with ability to teach. A broad education contributes much to the influence 
of the teacher. 

2. A time program that provides practice as nearly as possible like that of the 
occupation to be learned. The time programs at present include schools requiring 
only one practice day each week, those with five half-days of practice each week, 
those with alternate days in school and shop, and one institution requiring six 
8-hour days each week in the shop. 

3. Facilities for teaching the trades under conditions that are as nearly as 
possible like those of the actual trade. Preference should be given to the facilities 
for the trades in which there is greatest demand for workmen. 

The first step in the consideration of trades for colored women is to determine 
the extent to which it is wise to encourage them to specialize in different occupations. 
The uncertainty on this point is due to the great demand for young women of 
general training adapted to become teachers of the masses of the colored people. 
The wise course is probably to encourage the institutions to devote most of their 
resom-ces to the general course in household arts but to keep the door open for 
young women of special aptitudes to become skilled in such occupations as mUlinery 
dressmaking, tailoring, and trained nursing. 



EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 41 

Rural Education 

It is exceedingly unfortunate that many of the educational leaders of the 
colored people have not sufficiently appreciated the significance of the remarkable 
progress of the Negro race in agriculture. It is not surprising, however, that the 
unfavorable conditions under which many of the Negroes have been M'orking in 
rural districts should delude the superficial observer into the belief that some urban 
occupation is to be preferred. 

Unfortunate as the rural conditions of the colored people may be, their educa- 
tional leaders should realize, first, that the most significant and the most sub- 
stantial gains made by the race are in the rural communities, and secondly, that 
whatever their condition may be, the large majority of them are now living in the 
country, actually working on the soil, and earnuig thereby the little or the much 
which is necessary to purchase food and clothes, to send their children to school, 
and to open the doors of larger opportunities for the future. 

The rural progress of the race is fairly well measured by the rapidity with which 
the agricultm-al workers have been passing from the rank of farm laborers to that 
of tenants and later to that of owners. 

General Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, urged the importance 
of agricultural education from the very beginning of his work. The wisdom and 
force of his words on this subject are illustrated by the following quotations from 
his annual school reports for the years between 1870 and 1890: 

" The temporal salvation of the colored race for some time to come is to be won out of the 
ground. 

"The Negro race will succeed or fail as it shall devote itself with energy to agricultural 
and mechanic arts or avoid these pursuits, and its teachers must be inspired with the spirit 
of hard work and acquainted with the ways that lead to material success. 

"Teaching and farming go well together in the present condition of things (in the South). 
The teacher farmer is the man for the times; he is essentially an educator throughout the 
year. 

"To put into every state an agricultural school and experiment station open to the col- 
ored race and adapted to their especial needs, in direct communication with their leading 
farmers, spreading through circulars and bulletins, practical information, and furnishing 
stimulus to thousands who now never see anything of the sort — this is a work which should 
be provided for in any broad, national plan for educational improvement in the South." 

The improvement of rural conditions and the proper cultivation of the soil 
require at least five types of instruction adapted to the varying needs of the five 
groups whose interest is to be awakened and directed. These are as follows : 

1. Science and practice of gardening for all pupils in rural and urban schools. 

2. Science and practice of gardening with instruction in civics, economics, and 
teacher training, for all secondary pupils and persons preparing to be ministers and 
teachers. 



42 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

3. Two-year courses in agriculture to prepare farmers for the cultivation of 
the usual 30 or 40-acre farm. 

4. Four-year courses for those desiring to be agricultural teachers, farm demon- 
strators or managers of large farms. 

5. Rural extension activities for the entire community. 

1. Science and Practice of Gardening in Rural and Urban Schools. 

No phase of agricultural instruction has been so much neglected as gardening. 
The propaganda for country life and agriculture in America seems to have over- 
looked the garden, and to have left it to the whims of the subm-ban soil enthusiast. 
No phase of soil-culture has such a variety of important possibilities as gardening. 
These possibilities include the economic returns of the home garden, both in town 
and country, and especially in its use to supplement the salary of the rural teacher 
and minister. They include the educational value of the garden as an elementary 
school activity, as an illustration of intensive agriculture, as a laboratory for agri- 
cultural schools, and as the recruiting field in which pupils may be introduced to the 
wonders of soil-culture, and thus won for service in rural life. Furthermore, gar- 
dening has unique value in the cultivation of character, both in the individual and 
in the family. This social value is attained by the union of the family in the plant- 
ing and cultivation, by exchange and cooperation with neighbors similarly 
engaged, and by the development of marketing skill and habits of saving small 
earnings. As a suggestion of the essentials of a course in vegetable gardening for 
rural and urban schools, the following statement has been prepared by the United 
States Bureau of Education: 

Children in the primary grade should have projects consisting of the growing of some 
vegetables in the home garden. The children in the first grade should plant radish seed in 
the spring, snap beans in the summer, and onion sets in the late fall and winter. The children 
in the second grade should plant mustard in the spring, tomatoes in the summer, and spinach 
in the late fall and winter. The children in the third grade should plant lettuce in the spring, 
corn in the summer, and cabbage in the late fall and winter. These projects should become 
a regular part of the grade work and should be measured by the same standards as the other 
school activities. 

ChOdren in the elementary grades should be required to have a vegetable garden at least 
20 feet by 20 feet either at home or in a nearby vacant lot. To insure the best results, it 
would be necessary for a teacher to visit each garden at least once a week and direct the work. 
Children fail as gardeners when the problem of plant growth becomes so complex that 
interest is lost. Through the raising of vegetables the children should learn from the teacher 
how to manage soil, how to plant, cultivate and harvest the vegetables so as to get the best 
results, as well as how to keep accurate records of garden expenditures and receipts. The 
success of the garden will depend upon the accuracy and thoroughness with which the 
garden rules are practiced. 



EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 43 

2. Gardening and Economics in Higher Schools. 

In view of the large proportion of colored people in rural districts and on farms, 
it is evident that every secondary school and every private and higher institution 
should make it possible for pupils to appreciate the economic significance of garden- 
ing and soil cultivation, to know the relation of soil to soul, to know that farming 
is not mere drudgery, but the source of culture as well as prosperity. Such is 
the importance of rural life that the teachers of other subjects should use every 
opportunity which their subjects offer to arouse interest in the improvement of 
rural conditions. This applies especially to the teacher of economics and education. 
For students who are preparing to be teachers and ministers this course should be 
required just as far as time will permit. For such students knowledge of soil 
processes means not merely a needed supplement to their meager salaries, but, 
what is much more significant, a point of contact with the people. It is probable 
that the future of riu-al districts will be largely determined by the teacher and 
the preacher with a genuine and intelligent interest in the soil and its possibilities. 
Even the prospective medical student would do well to obtain this broad view of 
agriculture before he enters on his medical course. 

The following course has been prepared by the United States Bureau of Educa- 
tion. The course should be required of every pupil and should cover five periods 
a week for one year and a half. Experience shows that the greatest emphasis 
should be centered in the actual carrying out of the projects. The class-room 
instruction should be reduced to the minimum and should only be used to supple- 
ment the projects and answer the questions that arise through actual doing of the 
work. It is especially desirable that pupils living in the neighborhood of the school 
should work out the projects at their homes. Another important requirement of 
success in this course is the employment of a teacher who should devote the entire 
year to the work. 

This course should include all agricultural activities possible on a homestead — vegetable 
gardening, fruit growing, flower culture both for ornamental and selling purposes, care of 
chickens, a dairy cow, and swine. 

Through vegetable gardening, the students should learn how to plan and manage a twelve 
months' garden for the intensive production of vegetables. They should be familiar with 
companion and succession crops and the best methods of rotation. They should learn the 
varieties adapted to season, how to make and manage a hot bed and cold frame, how to 
manage the soil, how to plant and cultivate, how to control pests, and how to harvest both 
annual and perennial vegetables so as to get the best results. 

In the growing of fruit, the students should learn the soil requirements, methods of 
propagation, cultivation, spraying, harvesting, marketing of such fruits as strawberries, 
dewberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, peaches, quinces, and apples. 

Through flower growing, the students should learn how to make and root cuttings, such 
as geraniums, roses and hardy shrubs. They should become famiHar with annual, biennial, 
and perennial flowers suitable for home decorations. They should learn how to make and 
manage hardy flower borders, how to plan and plant a front yard. 



44 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

Through the care of chickens, the students should learn the principles involved in breed- 
ing, incubation, brooding; feeding for rearing, egg production and fattening; housing and 
sanitation; diseases and parasites; and the marketing of products. 

The student should learn how to feed, breed, house and care for a dairy cow in order to 
produce sanitary milk and butter economically. They should also learn how to raise a calf. 
In addition, they should learn how to breed, feed, house, and manage swine for economic 
production of pork, and how to cure and market the products. 

3. Two-year Course for Farmers. 

The distinctive purpose of the smaller agricultural school is to prepare pupils 
to become effective small farmers and to assist the local farmers to improve their 
methods. If the elementary school facilities for colored people were satisfactory, 
it might be wise to urge the type of school known as the "Irish agricultural station 
school." This type is successfully used in Ireland to give farm training to youths 
who are 18 years of age and have finished the elementary schools. The school 
term is 12 months. A pupil remains only one year and receives his board and from 
$20 to $50 for his work. The day is divided into 10 hours on the farm and 3 hours 
in the night school. The pupils are divided into a farm group and a barn group, 
so that their hours may be suited to the necessities of each department. Every 
pupil spends a part of his time in both departments. The majority of those finish- 
ing the year's work become farmers. Those with qualifications for further study 
take an additional year at Albert College so as to prepare for supervisory positions. 
The few students who are prepared to take a complete course are sent to the Royal 
College of Arts and Sciences, where they spend four years in general college studies, 
including considerable laboratory research and some farm practice. 

There is much that is suggestive in this idea. Missionary educators the world 
over are troubled about the adult pupil who is not able to follow the higher academic 
courses and too old to follow the secondary. This would seem to offer a solution of 
the problem. 

4. Course to Prepare Agricultural Teachers and Farm Demonstrators. 

The first essential of an agricultural school is a farm, operated in such a way as 
to combine the profitable cultivation of the land with the educational use of student 
labor. The elements required to realize this important purpose have been outlined 
as follows : 

1. A man with sound ideals of education and business ability who likes to work 
with his hands and believes that well-directed farm labor has educational value. 

2. A farm, conveniently located and moderate in size, so that students may pass 
from work lessons on the farm to classroom lessons without undue loss of time. 

3. Practical equipment similar to that required at the student's farm home. 

4. A firm conviction in the minds of teachers and students that doing is more 
important than talking, so that all will regard farm work as a more significant test 
of educational advancement than written papers or recitations. 



EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 45 

5. Payment of students for farm work on the basis of value of products rather 
than time spent. Work done for permanent improvement, or for the sake of the 
appearance of the farm, should not be charged against the crops. Students who 
are working to supplement their expenses should be tested on appearance work, 
such as cleaning up and filling gullies. 

6. So far as possible, only agricultural students should be employed on the 
farm, and the work should be so planned and supervised that its educational ad- 
vantages are realized. 

7. So far as possible, only those crops should be produced for which there is a 
sure market either at the dining hall, in nearby markets, or in the general market 
for staple cash crops. 

8. The buildings, like stock and equipment, should be maintained on an efficient 
basis. 

Agricultural schools are requiring more and more practice in the various phases 
of farming. The following statement from the prospectus of one of the Massa- 
chusetts agricultural schools is an excellent account of "Project study and work." 

The course of study is made each year to center on and support one particular branch of 
farming, so that the work of that year may be in some degree complete in itself, although at 
the same time it is preparation for the study of succeeding years. By this arrangement an 
excellent four-years' course is provided, and yet it is possible for a pupil to enter for one, two, 
or three years, and get full value for his time and effort. Furthermore, each pupil is required 
to undertake, during the year, a "project" in the productive agriculture about which his 
studies for the year center; for example, the second year, while studying small animals, it 
may be the management and caring for a few hives of bees, or of a flock of poultry, or hog 
raising; hence the terms "project study" and "project work." In this project he makes his 
plans, carries out his work, does his own financing and marketing, and keeps careful records 
of the business, all of which is usually done at his own home, but under the direction of an 
instructor. 

A four-year course of instruction should offer not only the science and practice 
of agriculture but also general science, rural economics and sociology, teacher 
training, applied mathematics, and English. 

5. Rural Extension Activities. 

Schools are recognizing more and more their responsibility to their communities. 
Numerous types of activity have been availed of to improve rural conditions. 
Few institutions, even for white people, have equaled Hampton and Tuskegee 
in extension work. While a number of the colored schools are maintaining neigh- 
borhood activities, there is a great need for the increase of all extension efforts in 
behalf of rural conditions of colored people. The principal types of activity that 
are adapted to the needs of the Negro communities are listed herewith: 

1. Farm demonstration work to show the Negro farmer how to use modern 
methods of cultivating his farm. 



46 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

2. County supervisors to direct rural teachers in gardening and other phases of 
soil cultivation. 

3. Farmers' institutes to bring together the young people of a community for 
a few days of instruction in rm-al methods. 

4. Short courses, varying from a few days to three months, for farmers who can 
not take a regular com-se. 

5. Farmers' conference and fair to assemble neighboring farmers for a day or 
two of encoiiragement and guidance in farm work. 

6. Boys' and girls' clubs to arouse interest in the simple but vital needs of 
country life, including the canning of fruits and vegetables, gardening, and crop 
production. 

General Considerations 

In considering the means and methods of agricultural instruction, it is im- 
portant to realize that efforts of schools are seriously hampered if there is no general 
program for the improvement of rural conditions. The more important elements 
of the general problem have been well outlined by Albert Leake in the following 
statements : 

1. A system of education suited to local conditions and to the everyday experi- 
ences of country children, thus relating them to the opportunities siuroimding 
them and developing their intellects through a reasonable agricultural and natural 
history outlook. 

2. The adaptation of the education of the boy and girl, from 14 to 19 years of 
age, toward productive efficiency along agricultural and home-making lines. 

3. The training of the adult farmer in methods of soil cultivation and farm 
management according to scientific principles, and the proper dissemination of 
the available knowledge on these subjects. 

4. A serious consideration of the conditions of the farm home and, the work 
that is carried on therein. Agriculture is a home industry, and the work of the 
woman plays a more important part in it than in any other industry. The drift 
from the country to the city is greatly influenced by the conditions of the farm 
home. 

5. The development of sound business methods in all farming operations and 
the establishment of cooperative methods of farming, distribution of products, 
and buying of supplies. This entails consideration of the means by which the 
farmer may fairly obtain money for the extension of his operations. 

6. An understanding of the social and economic advantages of good roads and 
other methods of transportation. 

7. A revitalization and redirection of country life, in order that the higher 
aspirations of farmers may find their satisfaction in the richer life that the country 
may be made to offer. 



EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 47 

Secondary Education 

In order to understand the place of secondary schools in the plan of education, 
it is necessary to outline the general purpose of secondary education in the American 
school system. It is safe to say that the possibilities of this phase of education 
have been greatly underestimated because the main purpose of the traditional high 
school course has been preparation for college rather than preparation for life. 
The subject matter of these schools has been largely the conventional knowledge 
desired by those who had more leisure than responsibility. Subjects have been 
retained in the coiu-se for their alleged "disciplinary" or decorative value rather 
than for their actual and practical values. 

With the increasing demand for democracy in education, the high schools are 
now recognizing the importance of providing instruction adapted to the needs of 
the pupils and the community. They are also realizing that modern sciences have 
made discoveries and achieved results that challenge the right of the ancient 
classics to a prominent place in the education of the youth. 

The type of secondary education should vary with the needs of the community. 
It is apparent that an effective institution in the rural district must be organized 
with reference to the agricultural life of the people. A city school should like- 
wise have regard for the industrial, hygienic, and educational needs of the urban 
community. There are also schools that select special objectives, such as the 
training of teachers, ministers, farmers, or industrial workers. The special features 
of the different types are described in the other chapters of this volume. With 
all their variations there are, however, a number of subjects and activities that 
should be included in the curriculum of all secondary schools. 

With the adoption of the welfare of the pupil and the community as the 
objectives of educational effort, every school activity will be so directed as to contri- 
bute to these ends in every possible direction. Not only will the English course, 
for example, contribute an appreciation of the English language, but every 
opportunity will be taken in the course to broaden the pupil's interest in such vital 
topics as agriculture, sanitation, right conduct, and future occupation. Arith- 
metical processes will be used to enable the pupil to have a clearer understanding 
of his community. Percentages will be calculated to show the decrease of illiteracy, 
the increase in land ownership, the relative death rate of cities and states, etc. 
Thus each school activity would so far as possible be made to supplement the 
contributionts of all the others. 

The adaptation of some of the secondary activities is so striking as to require 
comment. The following paragraphs outline the changes that have been observed 
in some institutions: 

Foreign Languages. — It is not necessary to consider the relative merits of the 
study of different foreign or ancient languages. All will admit some value in any 
language. The selection of the language and the time to be assigned to it in 



48 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

colored schools should depend entirely on the practical disciplinary and cultural 
value of the study of that language in comparison with other subjects or activities 
in the course. How much time can be spared for Latin when the pupil has not a 
respectable knowledge of the English language? Can time be given to Greek 
when the pupil is ignorant of the elements of physics or chemistry? Should French 
be studied if it means the exclusion of physiology or hygiene from the curriculum? 
These are the administrative problems to be considered. There is no doubt 
whatever that an immense amount of time is relatively wasted in trying to give a 
smattering of two or three languages. Sound policy would be to teach one language 
so thoroughly that the pupil has real control of it for his futiu-e study and recreation. 
Modern languages are generally to be preferred to ancient languages. The mastery 
of French or German or Spanish would be immeasurably more valuable than a 
superficial knowledge of a dozen languages, ancient or modern. 

Mathematics. — Mathematics has a genuine claim to an important place in 
secondary education. Quantitative statements of all physical and social activities 
demand a knowledge of mathematical processes. The manipulation of the definite 
relationships of exact factors as they appear in mathematics is a most valuable 
mental activity, which all pupils should have. To emotional groups, prone to 
action without adequate thought, thorough practice in mathematical processes 
is essential. The questions that have recently arisen with regard to the place of 
mathematics in the school curriculum do not pertain to the essential value of this 
subject. The points of doubt are on such questions as : How much time shall be 
devoted to the various branches of mathematics? How much should mathe- 
matics be taught in problems related to the life of the pupil and the community? 
What are the relative claims of mathematics as against other studies? The answer 
to these questions for colored schools should probably be determined by the very 
inadequate instruction in arithmetic given in the elementary schools and also by 
the students' need of other subjects more vitally related to his community. It is 
probable that the wise course for a majority of these schools would be to require a 
thorough knowledge of fundamental arithmetical processes with sufficient skill 
for practical use, special proficiency in the applications of arithmetic to the pupils' 
occupations, with a limited amount of algebra and geometry to aid in arithmetical 
processes. Possibly the following recommendation of the Association of Teachers 
of Mathematics in New England is adapted to the needs of some of the schools: 

A one-year course in elementary algebra and geometry of a concrete sort, designed so far 
as possible, to test the pupils' qualifications for future mathematical study. 

Physiology, Hygiene, and Sanitation. — The principles of good health should be 
taught both in the elementary and secondary grades. The study of physiology 
and hygiene is of value riot only in the improvement of health conditions but also 
in the development of a scientific point of view by the pupils. There is probably 
no subject more effective in overcoming superstition in all its forms than a knov.ledge 
of the principles that underly the health of the individual and the community. 



EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 49 

With the discovery that malaria is traceable to mosquitoes and typhoid fever to 
flies and filth, the pupil is able to free himself from the superstitions of his com- 
munity and begin to develop a scientific attitude toward the physical and social 
forces that surround him. For the colored race, with its death rate much higher 
than that of the white people, it is most important that something should be 
done to give a comprehensive knowledge of physiology and hygiene and to inculcate 
habits of obedience to health laws. 

Sciences. — The great achievements of modern times are largely in the realm of 
the physical sciences. Physics, chemistry, and biology have revolutionized many 
of the industrial and social activities of mankind. No phase of secondary educa- 
tion is more vital than the instruction of the pupils in the elements of these sciences. 

Social Studies, Including History. — Each study in the group that comprises 
history, community civics, and elementary economics has great possibilities if the 
teacher has any appreciation of the remarkable social forces that are now working 
vital changes in human affairs. The following quotations from the report of the 
Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education will indicate the char- 
acter of the work in social studies : 

Good citizenship should be the aim of social studies in the high school. While the admin- 
istration and instruction throughout the school should contribute to the social welfare of the 
community, it is maintained that social studies have direct responsibility in this field. Facts, 
conditions, theories, and activities that do not contribute rather directly to the appreciation 
of methods of human betterment have no claim. Under this test the old civics, almost 
exclusively a study of government machinery, must give why to the new civics, a study of all 
manner of social efforts to improve mankind. It is not so important that the pupil know 
how the president is elected as that he shall understand the duties of the health officer in 
his community. The time formerly spent in the effort to understand the process of passing a 
law over the President's veto is now to be more profitably used in the observation of the 
vocational resources of the community. In line with this emphasis the committee recommends 
that social studies in the high school shall include such topics as the following : Community 
health, housing and homes, public recreation, good roads, community education, poverty 
and the care of the poor, crime and reform, family income, and savings banks and life insur- 
ance. 

It is one of the essential qualifications of the good citizen to be self-supporting and by the 
activities necessary to his self-support to contribute efficiently to the world's work. Not only 
is it important that this fact be especially emphasized in the civic education of the youth, 
but it is also appropriate that he be given as much enlightenment as possible to assist him in 
choosing his vocation wisely from the standpoint of social efficiency. The Committee on 
Social Studies beheves that all education should take account of vocational needs and should 
contribute to the preparation of the youth for an intelligent choice of vocation and for effi- 
ciency in it. 

History, too, must answer the test of good citizenship. The old chronicler who recorded 
the deeds of kings and warriors and neglected the labors of the common man is dead. The 
great palaces and cathedrals and pyramids are often but the empty shells of a parasitic 
growth on the working group. The elaborate descriptions of these old tombs are but sounding 



so EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

brass and tinkling cymbals compared to the record of the joys and sorrows, the hopes and 
disappointments of the masses, who are infinitely more important than any arrangement of 
wood and stone and iron. In this spirit recent history is more important than that of ancient 
times; the history of our own country than that of foreign lands; the records of our own 
institutions and activities than that of strangers; the labors and plans of the multitudes than 
the pleasures and dreams of the few. 

Supplementary Subjects. — Three other subjects are of such special importance 
that their claims on secondary education must be mentioned. These three sub- 
jects are: business methods, the development of good taste through simple lessons 
in art, and music. Sound ideals and habits in business are fundamental to all 
people. For the colored people, just beginning their business activities, it is 
absolutely essential that the schools shall not only give a knowledge of business 
methods, but that they shall cultivate habits of business promptness and fidelity. 
Music is described by one school as the "natural heritage of the Negro," and it is 
pointed out that it is the aim of the school to turn this heritage to practical account. 
Lessons in good taste are of value in the care of the home, in the selection of dress, 
and in improving the appearance of the neighborhood. 

General Conduct. — The best educational thought is urging the essential value of 
general conduct in the training'of the youth. Following the example of the success- 
ful manufacturers, the educators are seeking out the "by-products" of school 
work and they are discovering that these "by-products" have values far beyond 
their expectations. 

College and Professional Education 

It is evident that the welfare of ten million people, whose existence is beset with 
so many perplexing problems, requires the best education of all types that society 
can provide. If college education is of value to any group, surely it is to those 
who are to be the leaders of the colored people. Only a broad-minded leadership 
with a thorough grasp of human development can understand the peculiar 
difficulties resulting from the close proximity of such widely varying races as the 
black and the ■rtrhite p>eople of the southern states. All the wisdom of history is 
needed to enable the colored teachers and religioujs leaders to realize that the 
difficulties of the American Negro have been experienced wherever diverse races 
have been compelled to live together, that the obstacles confronting the race are 
not insurmountable, that other peoples have struggled through similar trials and 
have won a place among the nations of the earth. More and more the leadership 
of the race is devolving upon its strong and capable men and women. Successful 
leadership requires the best lessons of economics, sociology, and education. With- 
out such leadership for both the white and colored peoples, race problems will 
multiply and increase in perplexity and menace to the nation. The race must 
have physicians with real skill and the spirit of service to lead against the insanitary 
conditions that are threatening not only the colored people but also their white 



EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 51 

neighbors. The Negroes must have religious teachers who can relate religion to 
individual morals and to the common activities of the community. They must 
have teachers of secondary schools who have had college training in the modern 
sciences and in the historical development of civilization. They require teachers 
who have a thorough knowledge of the historical progress of races and an appre- 
ciation of the sufferings and disappointments through which the nations have 
struggled to their present position in world affairs. With the increasing separation 
of the white and colored people in America, the leadership of the Negroes is devolv- 
ing more and more upon the capable men and women of the race. If college educa- 
tion is necessary to the wise guidance of any group, surely the Negroes should 
have the benefit of that education. 

The colleges have had an almost fatalistic belief not only in the powers of 
the college, but in the Latin and Greek features of the course. The majority of 
them seem to have more interest in the traditional forms of education than in the 
adaptation to the needs of their pupils and their commun'ity. Ingenuously some of 
their leaders have been lu'ging secondary schools to prepare their pupils for college 
rather than for life. In all this, to be sm-e, they are following in the footsteps 
of the schools for white people. It is only within ±he past few years that educa- 
tional leaders of the country have begun to realize that the college curriculum is 
to be adapted to the needs of the students; that college activities are subject to 
the tests of service to the community in exactly the same degree as any other 
activity that seeks social support. There is no doubt that many of these institu- 
tions will respond to the test when the educational leaders of the race fully under- 
stand the educational trend. 

The present tendency is undoubtedly to make the college a strong institution 
with ample facilities for effective work. With this tendency is a demand that the 
curriculum shall be broadened to give more emphasis to the great sciences of modern 
times both in the entrance requirements and in the college course. The traditional 
two years of Latin and Greek are not regarded as essential except to those preparing 
for literary pursuits. In some of the especially progressive institutions, no foreign 
language is required either for entrance or for graduation. The University of 
California is one of the most prominent examples of freedom from foreign language 
requirements. Similarly higher mathematics are not so piuch emphasized in the 
college curriculum. Calculus, analytical geometry, and trigonometry are being 
limited to the scientific and engineering courses. Among the subjects that are 
receiving increasing recognition are the physical sciences, economics, sociology, 
history, and teacher-training subjects. 

Race Elements in Education 

Another phase of educational adaptation discussed in the report is the pro- 
portion of white and colored teachers in the schools for Negroes. The contact 
of races both as teachers and pupils presents problems of increasing importance 



52 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

throughout the world as international migrations multiply. The elements to be 
considered are, first, that the group to be educated shall constitute as large a pro- 
portion of the teaching force as possible; second, that ample contact with other 
races of different experience shall be provided through well-trained, sympathetic 
teachers of other countries and peoples. Democracy demands the recognition of 
both of these elements. 

This increasing responsibility of the Negroes for their own education is one 
of the hopeful signs in the progress of the race. It is not only sound democracy 
but good pedagogy to work with a people rather than for them. So far as this 
principle is realized in the tendency to turn over the colored schools to colored 
teachers, the movement is sound. There is, however, considerable ground for the 
apprehension that the rapidity with which white teachers have been eliminated is 
too largely explained by the desire to be rid of an unpleasant duty. The southern 
people, impressed by the irritations sometimes attending the presence of white 
teachers in colored schools, are seeking the easy solution by substituting colored 
teachers for white teachers. Many of the colored leaders, debarred from so many 
positions of influence, are naturally enthusiastic advocates of a policy that enlarges 
their opportunities. Northern philanthropy, unacquainted with the real situation, 
is willing that its gifts shall be expended with the least possible responsibility as to 
method. The result has been the rapid change from white to colored teachers in 
both public and private schools. The remarkable service of Dr. Booker T. Wash- 
ington and many other colored men and women in the education of their race is 
ample evidence of the value of their contribution. With full appreciation of 
these services and of the principle of democracy involved, an increasing number of 
thoughtful men and women question the rapidity and universality of the change, 
because it appears to them to complete the segregation of the Negro from the aid, 
influence, and standards of white people. 

The greatest contribution of the North has been the teachers, sons and daughters 
of the best families, who have been willing to work in colored schools and to show 
their colored pupils by precept and example that education is not only head knowl- 
edge but the formation of habits that guarantee such fundamental virtues as 
cleanliness, thoroughness, perseverance, honesty, and the essential elements of 
family life. In the conduct and management of colored schools, it is to be expected 
that the South should stress conformity to the community standards of the white 
people. The concern of the Negro is natiu-ally the preservation of his self-respect 
and the increase of opportunities for employment and influence. The concern 
of the North is the maintenance of such school activities as will produce manhood 
and womanhood of good physique, discerning minds, and sound morals. In 
accordance with this purpose, northern people have erected schools of all types 
for the Negroes, including industrial, agricultural, and collegiate institutions. 
No greater loss could befall the Negro schools than the elimination of northern 
philanthropy and northern teachers. 



Ill 

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 

One of the most apparent defects of school methods is the tendency to emphasize 
the far-away and the abstract to the neglect of actual conditions near at hand. 
Even in the study of hygiene, books are read and lectures are often given under 
physical conditions that undermine health. The study of the printed page almost 
always makes difficult an adequate consideration of the life in the school, the 
home and the community. While this defect is more or less in all schools, it is 
probable that colored schools have been above the average in the frequency of 
the defect. At any rate, a people emerging from illiteracy and poverty can ill 
afford to be indifferent to the forces that touch their daily life in the school, the 
home, the shop, or the farm. The encouragement of dormitory regulation, ac- 
counting and records, gardening and simple manual training, and economy and good 
taste in buildings and grounds are all efforts to impress upon these schools the vital 
importance of the near and the real. These activities are some of the educational 
adaptations which the Survey of Negro Education recommended. In accordance 
with the constructive policy of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, appropriations have been 
made to initiate and stimulate these movements. Financial support has been con- 
tinued only until the wisdom of the activity was demonstrated to those concerned. 

Dormitory Regulations 

The investigation of Negro private and higher schools by the staff of the Phelps- 
Stokes Fund showed that the rooms of the male students at a number of schools 
were not kept as they should be. As a rule, conditions in the young women's 
dormitories were fair, but the boys were not required to maintain the same stand- 
ard of cleanliness and order that was demanded of the girls. It was found that 
in many schools the inspection of the boys' rooms was irregular, and that rules 
were not enforced. In order to remedy this situation, the Educational Director 
secured from the United States Military Academy at West Point and the United 
States Naval Academy at Annapolis copies of the dormitory regulations in force 
at those institutions. From these rules a simplified set of rules was compiled, 
suitable for use in the colored schools. The rules are as follows : 

Order of Importance 

1. Bed. Cleanliness first. Two sheets to be changed at least every week. The military 
system of making the bed is recommended — that is, folding each covering neatly at the foot 
of the bed, leaving only a sheet or other covering over the mattress. 

2. Toilet Facilities in Room. Cleanliness first. Waste water to be emptied twice daily. 

3. Clothing and Shoes, Furniture and Books neatly arranged in accordance with laws of 
sanitation and good taste. This is the West Point rule on shoes : "All shoes will be aligned 

53 



54 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

alongside of bed, toes out, in following order from foot of bed; high shoes, low shoes, slippers. 
They will be kept clean and dusted." 

4. Floors. Cleanliness first. Swept daily, scrubbed once every week or oftener. 

5. Walls. Clean and plain. Do not injure by nails. Very few pictures, and only good 
ones, possibly only one to a wall. Picture postcards should not be kept on the walls. They 
should be arranged like a card catalogue in a box made in the manual training department. 

6. Windows. Cleanliness first. Windows should be washed once a month. Curtains 
simple or none at all. Shades uniform with other windows. 

Inspection and Grading 

1. Inspection. Rooms to be visited and graded daily by one individual and every week 
by a committee. The grades of the daily inspector to be separate from the grades of the 
weekly committee. In cases where rooms are so numerous that more than one committee 
or more than one daily inspector is required, it is urged that each inspector and each com- 
mittee shall change their field of inspection so as to cover all the rooms in the course of the 
term of inspection. 

2. Grading. Inspectors and committee shall grade each room on the scale of 10, allowing 
points as follows for each item: 

Bed 3 or 3 

Toilet facilities in room 2 

Clothing, shoes, furniture, and books 2 2 

Floors 1 2 

Walls 1 2 

Windows 1 1 

Total 10 10 

In order to have these rules adopted in the colored schools, and to start a general 
movement for improved conditions in the dormitories, prizes of $25 each were 
offered to fom- schools in 1915. These prizes were to be used in conducting con- 
tests among the male students. The rules already set forth were to be used, as 
far as possible, at each institution. The schools selected were chosen, not only 
because of the need for improvement, but also as a recognition of effective super- 
vision and general satisfactory conditions in the dormitories. The following letter 
to school officers with a statement of the purposes and plan shows the way in 
which the prizes were to be awarded: 

"The inclosures explain a plan to aid institutions of learning in the educational use of their 
dormitories. The Phelps-Stokes Fund offers you $25 to be used as prizes, provided you are 
willing to adopt the inclosed plan of inspection. It is understood that you wUl be at liberty 
to make such changes in the plan as the conditions in your institution require. If you ac- 
cept this oflFer, kindly organize the inspection as soon as possible and report to us." 
Purposes and Plans of Phizes Offered 

1. That $25 be given to to be awarded as prizes for 

encouragement of cleanliness, order, and good taste in the rooms of the young men. 

2. That $15 be awarded to the occupants of the room that holds the highest rank in the 
requirements outlined in "Suggestions for Care of Dormitory Rooms." 



SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 55 

3. That $10 be awarded to the occupants of the room that shows the greatest improve- 
ment between this and commencement season. 

4. That the prizes be awarded at commencement time by the most prominent man or 
woman available at the time of the award. 

5. It is suggested that the person selected to give the prize be a broad-minded physician 
who can show the relation of room care not only to health but also to real culture and the care 
of the home. 

6. That the awarding of the prize and its purpose be given such publicity as will 
impress other institutions with the vital importance of room care in the educational develop- 
ment of the 3'outh. 

The extracts from replies show the interest manifested by the presidents of the 
schools, and their estimates of the value of the contests : 

"The system of inspection that was introduced through you has been very carefully 
adhered to under the immediate direction of Mr. Page. I feel that it has helped very much in 
improving the general conditions of our rooms and I also feel that the influence will go out 
beyond our college confines to the homes of our students." 

" One of the most noted surgeons of this city made an excellent address in presenting the 
gift from the Stokes-Phelps Fund to the three boys. I sincerely hope that we may have a 
continuance of your assistance in this matter." 

"We were indeed glad to have the U. S. Commissioner of Education make the presenta- 
tion. I feel quite sure that the benefit to the school will be lasting." 

At Talladega College, the contest was so successful, and such interest was 
manifested, that the following year the Phelps-Stokes Fund offered prizes for both 
girls and boys at that institution. 

The publicity given to the contests, and the prominence given the awarding 
of the prizes at school commencements, is illustrated by the clipping from one of 
the leading papers of Tennessee : 

"One of the pleasing and special features of the commencement was the awarding of 
prizes, particularly the award of twenty-five dollars in cash, fifteen dollars divided equally 
between Agelastus Simpson, of Chattanooga, and Willis Brown, of Gary, W. Va. ; ten dollars 
between Walter Owens, of Nashville, and Philip Brown, of Monrovia, Africa. The latter 
is a native of Africa, who came to this country last August, having worked his way to New 
York. This money was appropriated by the Phelps-Stokes Fund and distributed under the 
direction of the Bureau of Education for the improvement of boys' dormitories in colored 
colleges. The young men were called to the stage when Dr. P. L. Henderson, in an able 
address on neatness, cleanliness and order, and the necessity of forming good habits in the 
care of rooms, presented the prizes." 

Contests have been held at twenty-nine schools. The schools where contests 
have been held and prizes awarded are as follows : 

Alabama: 

Talladega College, Talladega. 



56 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

Abkansas: 

Arkansas Baptist College, Argenta. 

Branch Normal College, Pine Bluff. 

Philander Smith College, Little Rock. 

Shorter College, Little Rock. 
District of Columbia: 

Howard University, Washington, D. C. 
Florida: 

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College, Tallahassee. 
Georgia: 

Clark University, Atlanta. 

Louisiana: 

New Orleans College, New Orleans. 
Straight College, New Orleans. 

Maryland: 

Princess Anne Academy, Princess Anne. 

Mississippi : 

Rust College, HoUy Springs. 

North Carolina: 

Bennett College, Greensboro. 
Negro Technical College, Greensboro. 
St. Augustine School, Raleigh. 
Shaw University, Raleigh. 

South Carolina: 

Benedict College, Columbia. 

State Colored Normal, 'ndustrial. Agricultural, and Mechanical College, Orange- 
burg. 

Tennessee : 

Fisk University, Nashville. 

Knoxville College, KnoxviUe. 

Lane College, Jackson. 

Morristown Normal and Industrial College, Morristown. 

Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School, NashvUle. 

Texas: 

Prairie View Normal and Industrial College, Prairie View. 
Texas College, Tyler. 

Virginia : 

St. Paul Normal and Industrial Institute, Lawrenceville. 
Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, Petersburg. 

West Virginia: 

West Virginia Collegiate Institute, Institute. 
' Christiansburg Industrial Institute, Christiansburg. 



SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 57 

Accounting and Records 

Complete financial records are as important for an educational institution as 
they are for a business enterprise. Too frequently school officials have considered 
the keeping of such records an unimportant part of the work of the school. Present- 
day standards of economy, efficiency, and honesty, however, require that the 
school be able at any time to present an accurate statement of its financial affairs. 
No school can furnish such a statement without proper accounts. Such accounts 
were of special importance to the schools considered in the report, which depend 
so largely for their support upon private benefactions. 

In the efforts to combine instruction in academic subjects with training in 
agriculture and the various trades, many of these schools have developed so com- 
plex an organization that the proper keeping of their accounts requires expert 
bookkeepers. Such bookkeepers cannot always be obtained, and in many instances 
funds are not available to offer them adequate compensation. 

Most of the schools realize the importance of good accounting methods and 
have attacked the problem with resolution and determination. Some institutions, 
however, including a few of the larger and many of the smaller schools, make no 
effort to keep proper books. Frequently the only financial records of the school 
are to be found in the personal memoranda of the principal. Occasionally the 
financial responsibility is divided among several persons, with the result that 
complete accounts are not forthcoming for the whole school. This lack of central- 
ization is most pronounced in the State and land-grant schools and in the schools 
under colored religious denominations. In these schools the treasurer usually 
lives away from the school campus and handles only part of the funds. It has been 
found also that the principal of the school conducts the boarding department as 
a private venture, although the products of the farm and the school equipment are 
used with perhaps only a nominal charge. 

The more important church boards provide certain forms and require periodic 
reports. They have not, however, provided adequate methods of controlling the 
students' accounts, or of recording the operating results of the boarding, agri- 
cultural, and industrial departments. Property records are equally deficient. 
The investigation revealed schools that own large amounts of land, the dimensions 
and extent of which are known only to the president of the school. Usually the 
president would state off hand the amount and value of the land, or would refer 
to the copies of deeds which were kept among his private papers. Inventories 
of buildings and movable equipment were nearly always lacking, and several schools 
came under observation which had lost large sums of money in insurance indemnity 
because they could not produce inventories to prove their losses. 

While dishonesty could be proved in but few instances, the accounts and 
records of many schools were foimd to be so inadequate as to make them liable to 
the charge of gross inefficiency in the administration of financial resources and 
student activities. 



58 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

It was because of these findings that the Phelps-Stokes Fund arranged with a 
New York firm of accountants to assist certain of the schools in preparing financial 
statements and in inaugurating a system of accounts suited to the needs of the par- 
ticular institution. As the need of such help was found to be very general, it 
seemed wise to assign one of the members of the staff to undertake this 
work for any of the Negro schools which should desire his services. Before his 
work was well started, however, the Government recognized his ability as an 
accountant and took him for work that had been made necessary by the war. 
Another man was obtained who had had experience in school accounting in one 
of the Negro schools to undertake the work of installing better systems of account- 
ing. He spent some time working with the auditors of one of the New York firms 
which had charge of the accounts of a number of educational institutions, and he 
also spent some time in the office of the auditor of the University of Chicago. 
He was about to begin his work when the War Department required his services 
for special work in connection with the Student Officers Training Corps as an 
inspector. In January, 1919, he returned to the office of the Phelps-Stokes Fund 
in Washington and began his work. 

Letters were sent out to various schools that had expressed a desire to im- 
prove their methods of recording financial transactions. Responses were received 
from a number that were visited, and after a careful survey of their needs was 
completed a system which could be used with slight adaptations in all of them was 
worked out. A more or less uniform system of accoxuiting to be used in schools 
of the same type is an advantage. It makes it possible for the necessary books 
to be purchased at less cost to the institution, and it produces a group of book- 
keepers who can take up the work of a school without loss of time because the system 
is a familiar one. It also gives a uniform system of student records by which 
students going from one school to another can be carefully recorded. Some of the 
schools were visited at the request of Dr. James H. Dillard of the Jeanes Fund 
and the Slater Board. 

As a preliminary to this work a sis- weeks course in school accounting was offered 
by Hampton Institute as a part of the summer school ciuriculum. The class 
was in charge of the accountant of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, assisted by an account- 
ant from the treasurer's office of Tuskegee Institute. The class was small, but the 
idea spread through the whole student body and has borne fruit in an added 
interest in the work and a desire to know about the possibilities and the cost of 
installing new systems in a number of schools. When the schools opened in the 
fall of 1919, six institutions had begun installing new systems of accounts under 
the direction of the Phelps-Stokes agent, and seven more schools were about to 
complete the arrangements for the work. Before the school year ends this number 
will undoubtedly have doubled. For the first year it will be necessary to watch 
the work very carefully, as systematic habits in a matter of this sort are not easily 
acquired; but if the enthusiasm of the beginning is any criterion, the work will 
succeed. 



SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 59 

Economy and Good Taste in Buildings and Geounds 

No educational institutions are more urgently in need of the intelligent applica- 
tion of the principles of sound building than the private and higher schools for 
Negroes in the United States. The influence of good design, good construction ^ 
and attractive surroundings upon character and citizenship is as important in the 
school as in the home; and the reflex action of the scho'ol upon the home is greater 
and more far-reaching than is generally understood. While the waste in con- 
struction is probably not much greater than with other groups of schools, the need 
for funds is far more pressing. 

The watchwords of American school-building policy have been said to be: 
"Education, economy, safety, health, and happiness." To these may well be 
added beauty and appropriateness. It is obviously important that the school 
plant should be in harmony with all the aims of educational endeavor and that 
classroom theory should, as far as possible, be illustrated by the general form and 
condition of the buildings and grounds. Clearly a study of hygienic laws, economy, 
and design will be of little value if the school plant has been constructed in violation 
of the laws of health, good business, and good taste. 

The study of the buildings and grounds of typical schools for colored people 
was made under the supervision of I. N. Phelps Stokes, president of the Phelps- 
Stokes Fund trustees, upon whose advice the services of A. H. Albertson were 
secured to make a personal study of a considerable number of typical institutions 
widely distributed through the southern states. Mr. Albertson brought to the 
study not only the skill of a professional architect, but also varied experience in 
actual building operations and a thorough sjinpathy with the struggling efforts 
to educate a people limited in many ways. 

The following axioms of building were formulated for the use of those in charge 
of school construction: 

1. Selection of site. — In selecting a site watch the sun, the rain, the wind, the view. The 
direction of the sun will locate the heat and the shade; the run-oS of the rain will show the 
slope and the nature of the soil ; and the direction of the wind will indicate the cool and cold 
exposures. 

2. General plan of grounds. — Evolve and adopt a general plan for future extension. Accept 
suggestions offered by existing natural featiu'es and face the buildings inward and toward 
each other unless, owing to the excessive slope of the land or to other considerations, such an 
arrangement is impracticable. A plan like this will save time, trouble, and expense and will 
results in a more orderly and attractive appearance. 

3. When building, build well. — Cheap construction is not usually economical construction. 
It is better economy to construct buildings small, durable, and ready for extension than to 
build commodiously and cheaply. It is better to omit useless towers, spires, galvanized iron 
embellishments, etc., than to economize on the foxmdations or the strength and durability 
of the building. It is better to build solidly of frame than cheaply of brick. Frame is generally 



60 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

more attractive than brick and less expensive. The frame Colonial houses have lasted a 
hundred years or more. 

4. Build low. — When land is available, have the buildings low — not more than three 
stories in brick, two stories in wood — and if possible, do not use the basement for academic 
purposes. 

5. Tke best advice is the cheapest. — It will pay in the end to consult a good architect before 
building, and a good mechanical engineer before installing a central power plant. School 
buildings have become highly specialized; the scientific problems connected with them and 
their proper and economic design and construction require a high order of professional train- 
ing and experience. 

6. Simple appearance. — School buildings are not institutions of confinement, neither are 
they museums of architecture. The appearance should be invitiag, cheerful, more domestic 
than institutional, and should be an indication and an outgrowth of the inner uses. 

7. Use materials according to their nature. — It is better to build plainly of good materials 
than to build elaborately with imitations. It is better to build of wood than to imitate brick- 
work with pressed sheets of tin, or stone with rough cast concrete. Don't construct the 
ornament, ornament the construction. 

8. Classrooms and dormitory rooms. — Rooms with high ceilings are expensive to build, 
expensive to heat and light, and necessitate longer stairs and more building to contain them. 
Natural light for classrooms should be admitted on the left side only, the windows should be 
close to the ceiling, and the glass about equal in area to 20 per cent of the floor area, varying 
according to latitude. The color of walls should be pale; a shade of light grayish buff is ex- 
cellent. In dormitory rooms the closets should be open at the top or bottom, or both; and it 
is suggested that the transoms over the entrance door be fitted with fixed slats for ventila- 
tion. 

The survey and the recommendations in the report are known to have in- 
fluenced a number of institutions. One of the most immediate of these results 
appeared in a college located in the open suburbs of a small city. This institution 
had planned to build a girls' dormitory four and one half stories high, and compara- 
tively small on the ground, making the building look high and pinched, after the 
style of small city office buildings of some years ago. It was uninviting, undo- 
mestic, and somewhat overloaded with architectural forms. The suggestion was 
offered, and accepted, that the building should be made lower, simpler, and larger 
on the ground. The result is noteworthy — a building more attractive, more 
sincere, less expensive, and distinctly suitable for a girls' dormitory. 

Gardening and Simple Manual Training 

The recommendation most frequently made to the schools observed was the 
introduction of gardening and simple manual training. Such was the frequency of 
this exhortation as to raise the apprehension lest some writer or orator should 
heap ridicule upon the whole report because of its stress upon activities whose 
economic and educational values had not then been recognized as vital contribu- 



SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT 61 

tions to the thrift movements of the World War. Two newspaper reporters were 
the first to recognize these recommendations as forerunners of the great gardening 
campaigns that have since become international. One of them writing in the New 
York Evening Post, said : " The gardening recommendation is not an effort to climb 
aboard a popular movement, for the report was in the hands of the printer while 
the flapping clothes still held sway in the backyards." The other observed, 
through the columns of the Richmond News Leader: "Although the manuscript 
went to the printer long before a single clod of virgin back-yard soil had been turned 
in the present campaign for more food production, the investigation urged that 
colored boys and girls should be well drilled in the theory and practice of gardening." 

Before war necessities convinced the state and national governments of the 
wisdom of spending millions in the encouragement of school and home gardening 
and of other forms of thrift movements, the Phelps-Stokes Fund not only recom- 
mended these activities, but appropriated small sums to initiate gardening in a 
number of Negro schools in the southern states. 

Simple manual training was likewise urged and encouraged. Modern educa- 
tional practice recognizes without argument not only the economic but also the 
educational value of hand training. The economic value to the colored people is 
emphasized by the comparative poverty of the race, while the educational result 
is even more necessary for the Negro than for the white, since the Negro's highly 
emotional nature requires for balance as much as possible of the concrete and 
definite. Observation indicates the importance of simplicity in the manual courses 
and the application of the lessons learned in the care of the school plant and in the 
necessary activities of the institution. Lessons in woodwork increase in effec- 
tiveness when they are applied to the repair of buildings. Domestic science be- 
comes real when the school kitchen is used as a laboratory and the dormitories 
are supervised according to the classroom theory. 

School Appropriations 

The annual appropriations of the Phelps-Stokes Fund have been made for 
the improvements described above or for some special purpose requiring immediate 
aid. The sums appropriated have usually ranged from $100 to $500. In a few 
instances as much as $1,000 has been voted. The policy of the Fund is not to 
continue the gifts indefinitely, but rather to establish the work and secure public 
aid for permanent support. 

The institutions to which appropriations have been made during the past ten 
years are listed below. In all there are 52 different schools or undertakings. 
While the majority of the institutions are for Negroes, one institution for American 
Indians, now known as the American Institute for Indians, was formerly the Roe 
Indian Institute. Two on the list are white schools, the Berry School, at Rome, 
Ga., and the Mt. Hermon School for Boys, in Northfield, Mass. 



62 



EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 



Alabama : 

Tuskegee Institute. 

Peoples' Village School, Mt. Meigs. 

Superintendent of Schools, Macon 

County. 
Talladega College. 
Montgomery Industrial School. 
Calhoun School. 
Mobile County Training School. 

Arkansas : 

Arkansas Baptist College. 

District of Columbia: 

National Training School for 
Women and Girls. 

Florida : 

Daytona Educational and Indus- 
trial School. 
Florida Baptist Academy. 
Robert Hungerford School. 

Georgia : 

Americus Institute. 
Atlanta University. 
Morehouse College. 
Ft. Valley High and Industrial 

School. 
Haines Institute, Augusta. 
Model Training School, Athens. 
Thayer Home, Atlanta. 
Berry School, Rome. 

Kansas : 

Roe Indian Institute. 

Kentucky : 

Lincoln Institute, Lincoln Ridge. 

Louisiana : 

Coleman College. 



Sabine Normal and Industrial In- 
stitute. 
Peck Home, New Orleans. 
Colored Industrial Home. New Orleans' 

Massachusetts : 

Mt. Hermon School for Boys. 

Mississippi : 

Jackson College. 

Prentiss Normal and Industrial 
Institute. 
North Carolina: 

Parmele Institute. 

Slater Industrial and Normal School. 

Pamlico County. 

Charlotte Schools (gardening). 

Palmer Memorial Institute. 

Bertie County (school building). 

Waters Normal Institute. 

Pitt County Training School. 

Superintendent of Schools, Raleigh. 

Whitesville School. 
South Carolina: 

Penn Colored School. 

Bettis Academy, Trenton. 

Benedict College. 
Tennessee : 

Fisk University. 

Lane College. 

Morristown College. 

Chattanooga Public Schools. 
Texas: 

Wiley University. 
Virginia : 

Hampton Institute. 

Manassas Industrial School. 

Bishop Payne Divinity School. 



IV 

COOPERATION WITH EDUCATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS 

AGENCIES 

Some of the most important activities of the Phelps-Stokes Fund are main- 
tained through cooperation with other agencies, especially the United States 
Bureau of Education, the Boy Scouts of America, the Southern Sociological 
Congress, Chambers of Commerce, International Sunday School Association, 
trustees of educational institutions, and public school officers. The essential 
condition of all cooperation has been that the work undertaken shall be con- 
structive in character. Destructive criticism, mere complaint, propaganda 
without a program of improvement are contrary to the purposes and spirit of 
the Fund. When it has been necessary to present mismanagement, discrimina- 
tions, and injustices, every effort has been made to discover the elements that have 
brought about the condition. This policy is illustrated both in the description 
of the weaknesses of educational institutions and in the educational discriminations 
of public school systems. Wherever possible schools have been shown how to 
improve rather than condemned for existing conditions. The Negro race has been 
praised for its progress to date and then m-ged on to the next milestone rather 
than ridiculed for its backwardness. Similarly public school officials are judged 
according to the tendency to increase or decrease school facilities for Negroes, 
and then urged to provide adequate accommodations so that the Negroes may 
become efficient citizens not only of the state but also of the United States. 

The cooperative relationship between the Fund and the United States Bureau 
of Education was most satisfactory. From January 1, 1913, to July 1, 1919, 
the Fund paid the salaries and traveling expenses of the workers in the Division 
of Racial Groups. This Division not only conducted the survey of Negro Educa- 
tion described elsewhere, but also initiated a number of school improvements in 
different states. It was a sort of a clearing-house for many ^ucational move- 
ments in behalf of the Negroes. An extensive correspondence was conducted 
with persons interested in the condition of the Negro and in his relation to the 
white people of the country. A considerable number of philanthropic persons 
applied to the Division for information as to the worthiness and effectiveness of 
Negro schools applying for aid. The agents of the Fund assisted in all educational 
surveys conducted by the Bureau in the southern states. 

The demands for information and advice were greatly increased by the rapid 
migration to the North and by the increased friction between the races during 
the war and the reconstruction period. Up to the entrance of the United States 
into the war in 1917, the Division of Racial Groups of the Bureau of Education 
was the only Federal agency giving any special attention to the Negro problem 

63 



64 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

in the United States. The activities of the Negro farm-demonstration agents of 
the Department of Agriculture are in a sense a notable exception to this statement. 
Dm-ing the war, the War Department and the Labor Department appointed 
colored men to act as advisers on race questions in those departments. The 
War Department discontinued the provision for a colored adviser after the 
demobilization of Negro soldiers. Owing to the failure of Congress to make 
an appropriation for the Negro Division of the Labor Department, the work is 
now limited to the part-time activities of one man. The Division of Racial 
Groups was discontinued in the Bureau of Education July 1, 1919, in accordance 
with an act of Congress passed in 1917 forbidding cooperation of private agencies 
with the Federal Government after June 30, 1919. It is most ujifortunate that 
no provision has been made to continue the bureau's activities in Negro educa- 
tion. The racial situation was never more acute than during these reconstruction 
months. The National Government has every reason to maintain a group of 
workers whose duty it shall be to know the educational provisions for the Negroes 
and to develop correlation and cooperation between the states for the improve- 
ment of the Negroes in every part of the country. 

Conference op Educational Board's Representatives 

The Fund has been actively interested Lq the Conference of Educational Boards, 
Representatives. In 1913 Dr. James H. Dillard, of the Slater and Jeanes Funds, 
called a meeting of the representatives of church boards of education for the 
purpose of discussing ways and means of avoiding duplication of effort among 
the schools owned by these Boards. At this conference it was agreed that meet- 
ings would be held semiannually. The presiding officer and place of meeting are 
decided at each conference. The important topics that have been discussed are 
the adaptation of school curriculum to the needs of the pupils and the community, 
the selection of institutional names that are descriptive of the grade and character 
of work done, the elimination of schools that are duplicating the work of other 
public or private institutions, and the development of cooperation in all educa- 
tional efforts. The educational secretary of the Fund has been the secretary of 
the Conference since 1914. 

Probation Officers in Southern Cities 

One of the interesting experiments made by the Fund was cooperation with 
southern cities in maintaining Negro probation officers to supervise Negro offenders. 
The plan first considered was to assist the associated charities of certain cities to 
maintain Negro workers who would help both to interpret the living conditions of 
Negroes to the white people and also assist the Negroes to establish friendly 
relationship with the white people. Investigation soon revealed the fact that 
southern cities are much more concerned with Negro offenders than with Negro 



COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES 65 

paupers. The South has only recently begun to adopt the methods of organized 
charities in dealing either with white or colored people. 

Through the aid of influential citizens of Atlanta and especially the juvenile 
court judge, the court appointed a well-trained colored man as probation officer. 
This officer worked under the direction of a committee of white and colored 
citizens. The results M'ere very satisfactory. Under the wise and sympathetic 
direction of the officer and the advisory committee, the offenders developed into 
good citizens or proved not to be offenders but the unfortunate victims of circum- 
stances, conditions breeding offenders and even criminals were abolished, and, 
most important of all, the friendly cooperation of white and colored citizens in 
behalf of the submerged class developed a mutual respect and sympathy to deal 
with other and more serious difficulties that might develop between the races. 
The public authorities of Atlanta were so impressed with the experiment as to 
provide the necessary funds to continue the financial support necessary after two 
years' subsidy from the Phelps-Stokes Fund. Experiments in two other cities 
indicated the possibility of extending the plan wherever colored probation officers 
are not employed. While the plan is being urged by other organizations, there is 
need for more vigorous action to establish the required number of officers. 

Training of Rural Ministers 

Another important interest of the Fund is the encouragement of activities for 
the training of rural ministers. According to the United States Census there 
were 17,495 Negro ministers in 1910. While there are many Negro ministers of 
high character and large vision even among those who have but a limited knowledge 
of books, it is well known that the qualifications of a large number of colored 
ministers are very unsatisfactory. The Negroes are relatively more dependent on 
their churches than the white people. The Negro minister has been the leader 
not only in religious affairs but in economic and social activities. Some of the 
most interesting and helpful personalities of the colored people have been imlettered 
preachers who acquired their ideas of life from the cultured white people with 
whom they lived as slaves. Of such was the late Bishop Grant of the African 
Methodist Chm-ch, who delighted to tell of his boyhood days in his master's home. 
The places of these leaders are gradually being filled by yoimg colored men who 
have received their standards from a group of northern teachers of refinement and 
sterling character, but unfortunately colored ministers of this type are not yet 
very numerous. 

Conditions call for vigorous action on the part of the colored people and their 
friends. The present attendance of fewer than 500 students in the religious training 
departments of the colored schools is not sufficient. The number of schools 
offering religious training should be increased. Not only will there have to be 
more institutions of college grade, but some schools of secondary grade should be 
enlisted in the work of preparing ministers. Even more important than the 



66 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

increase in the output of theological students is the adaptation of the course of 
study to fit the ministers to their tasks. The first requisite of these schools should 
be a plan of work that develops character. The most effective way to realize 
this is to insist on the formation of habits of order and punctuality and industry. 
Next to a thorough knowledge of the English Bible should be a knowledge of the 
laws of health. For the rural minister there should be an effective coiu-se in 
rural economics and a practical knowledge of .gardening. 

Miss Olivia Phelps Stokes showed her interest in this problem several years ago 
by her gift of Phelps Hall to Tuskegee Institute. This building was erected to be 
the home and school of young men preparing for the ministry. The plan has been 
to arrange the instruction so as to fit the men to deal intelligently with rural 
conditions. While the graduates are far better prepared than the majority of colored 
ministers, their number is small. 

A more recent effort to deal with this problem is the plan directed by Dr. 
Dillard whereby rural ministers are invited to attend a summer school for one 
week. At these schools the ministers receive instruction not only in such technical 
matters as sermon preparation and Bible interpretation, but also in sanitation 
and hygiene, good roads and crop production. The Phelps-Stokes Fund has 
supplemented the expenses of these schools at Hampton Institute and Bettis 
Academy. 

International Sunday School Association 

The Fimd has made appropriations to the work of the International Sunday 
School Association in behalf of Negroes. This Association maintains one field 
worker who travels among colored schools organizing "Simday School teacher 
training classes " and arousing interest in improved methods of teaching the Bible. 
Through his efforts such classes have been organized in 160 institutions. The 
movement is disseminating knowledge of effective organization in church work 
and preparing teachers for Simday Schools. 

In addition to the work outlined above, special classes are now organized for 
the teachers assembled in the summer normal schools. In 1918 these classes 
were conducted in fourteen of the thirty-one summer normals. 

Other Organizations 

In the past few years there has been an awakened conscience in regard to the 
social needs of the Negro. Americanization does not mean simply adapting 
foreign groups to an American community life and standards. It means arousing 
all native born citizens of all races to a new enthusiasm for American ideals of 
living and of mental development. The leaders of these movements have sought 
advice and counsel from the executive force of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. Among 
these have been the British Commission to study the needs of village life in India, 
traveling through the United States in order to observe educational methods 



COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES 67 

with handicapped groups. The Phelps-Stokes Fund had the privilege of cooperat- 
ing actively in interpreting educational experience in this country to the group. 
At other times the services of the educational director of the Fund have been 
utilized to guide groups of Chinese and Japanese students to educational fields 
where the adaptation to the needs of the pupils was particularly effective. 

Other organizations and institutions with which members of the executive 
force have cooperated in various capacities are the Miner Fund, Boy Scouts, Fisk 
University, Howard University, National Training School for Women and Girls, 
Southern Sociological Congress, and the Commission on the Reorganization of 
Secondary Education of the National Education Association. 

The Southern Sociological Congress has been one of the welfare agencies with 
which cooperation has been very close. This Congress has one section of its 
work devoted entirely to Negro affairs. The work has been aided in the past 
few years by small appropriations of money from the Phelps-Stokes Fund and 
by personal counsel which the director has been able to give. One of the most 
important recent movements of this Congress has been its pronoimcements in 
favor of a broader and saner attitude in race relations. The recent trip which 
the president and the secretary of the Congress took to Salt Lake City to the 
meeting of the governors there to bring before them resolutions on lynching was 
financed by the Fund. 

The chau-manship of the Committee on Social Studies in Secondary Education 
under the N. E. A. Reorganization Commission has enabled the educational 
director to assist in the effort to make the teaching of civics and history in the 
high schools of the country more effective in preparing the youth of the land for 
the duties of citizenship. The reports of the Commission on Secondary Educatiori 
have been printed by the United States Bureau of Education. These reports 
have been issued with the conviction that the secondary school teachers of social 
studies have a remarkable opportunity to improve the citizenship of the land. 
This conviction is based upon the fact that the two million secondary school 
pupils constitute probably the largest and most impressionable group in the 
country that can be directed to a serious and systematic effort, through both 
study and practice, to acquire the social spirit. If the two and a half million 
pupils of the seventh and eighth grades are included in the secondary group, 
according to the six-and-six plan, this opportunity will be very greatly increased. 
The committee interpreted this opportunity as a responsibility which can be 
realized only by the development in the pupil .of a constructive attitude in the 
consideration of all social conditions. In facing the increasing complexity of 
society, it is most important that the youth of the land be steadied by an unwaver- 
ing faith in humanity and by an appreciation of the institutions which have 
contributed to the advancement of civilization. 



V 
THE PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIPS 

The present attitude toward racial problems resembles the old attitude toward 
the problems of poverty. A fatalistic belief prevailed that poverty was a natural 
condition of certain groups. The causes were supposed to be perfectly apparent 
to all men of ordinary intelligence. The study of economics and other social 
sciences has shown that poverty may be the result of a number of forces and 
conditions. A new attitude has consequently been developed toward the pauper 
class. The old fatalistic attitude toward race problems still prevails too generally. 
Prejudice, based upon ignorance and tradition, frequently determines policies of 
vital importance to both white and colored people. A beginning has been made 
in a study of the elements that enter into the racial problems of our country. 
Dr. W. D. Weatherford, through the Y. M. C. A. Conferences at Blue Ridge 
and the study groups in southern colleges, has caused many southern students 
to think more intelligently on these questions. The Southern University Race 
Commission described elsewhere in this report is exerting similar influence. 

The Trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, and especially Dr. Anson Phelps 
Stokes, the secretary of the Fund, are emphatic in their belief that every possible 
effort should be made to prepare the students in southern universities and colleges 
to approach the Negro problem in a broad-minded, scientific manner. To this 
end the Trustees in 1911 endowed one fellowship in the University of Georgia, 
one in the University of Virginia, and a traveling foundation at Peabody Teachers' 
College. Each fellowship has an endowmant of $12,500, producing an income 
of about $500. The income of the traveling foundation of $10,000 is used to 
pay the expenses of professors who are making special study of the educational 
needs of the Negro race. 

The results of these appropriations have been very satisfactory. Twelve 
students have spent a year or more in careful investigation of some phase of the 
Negro problem. Several professors from Peabody College have visited Negro 
schools of various grades. Even in the brief time since the fellowships were 
established practically all the fellows have shown the value of their special training 
in race problems. At least three of them have rendered service of national impor- 
tance. Striking testimony to the value of these fellowships has been expressed 
by the Southern University Commission on Race Questions in the following 
resolutions : 

In consideration of the fact that the Phelps-Stokes Fellowships at the University of 
Virginia and the University of Georgia have accompHshed most excellent results, besides 
arousing the interest of hundreds of students at those institutions in a serious and scientific 
study of southern race questions; 



PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIPS 69 

And in view of the growing importance of having first-hand information on the present 
status of race relationship in the south; 

And in view of the great difficulty of developing methods of securing such information 
on account of the many obstacles that obviously confront such investigation; therefore 
be it 

Resolved, That we are in sympathy with the method typified by these Fellowships, and 

Resolved, That we respectfully request the establishment of additional Fellowships at 
other Southern State universities. 

Terms of the Fellowships 

The Fellowship at the University of Georgia was endowed in 1912 under the 
following resolutions of the Trustees : 

Whereas, Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes in establishing the Phelps-Stokes Fund was 
especially solicitous to assist in improving the condition of the Negro, and 

Whereas, It is the conviction of the Trustees that one of the best methods of forward- 
ing this purpose is to provide means to enable southern youth of broad sympathies to 
make a scientific study of the Negro and his adjustment to American civilization : 

Resolved, That twelve thousand five hundred dollars ($12,500) be given to the Uni- 
versity of Georgia for the permanent endowment of a research fellowship, on the following 
conditions: 

1. The University shall appoint annually a Fellow in Sociology for the study of the 
Negro. He shall pursue advanced studies under direction of the departments of Sociology, 
Economics, Education, or History, as may be determined in each case by the Chancellor. 
The Fellowship shall yield $500, and shall, after four years, be restricted to graduate 
students. 

2. Each Fellow shall prepare a paper or thesis embodying the result of his investigation, 
which shall be published by the University with assistance from the income of the Fund, 
any surplus remaining being applicable to other objects incident to the main purpose of 
the Fellowship. A copy of these resolutions shall be incorporated in every publication 
issued under this foundation. 

The right to make all necessary regulations, not inconsistent with the spirit and letter 
of these resolutions, is given to the Chancellor and the Faculty, but no changes in the 
conditions of the foundation can be made without the mutual consent of both the Trustees 
of the University and of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. 

At the University of Virginia "the holder must be a graduate student in 
residence at this University and must plan his courses in accordance with certain 
specific requirements of the Phelps-Stokes Fellowship Committee. He must, 
furthermore, pursue research work concerning the Negro in the South; encourage 
investigation and a wider general interest in the Negro problem among the students 
of the University and of other colleges in Virginia; procm-e lectures upon Negro 
topics for the University, to be delivered by lectures approved in advance by the 
committee; prepare a report embodying the results of his incumbency; and write 
a thesis upon some subject approved in advance by the committee, which thesis 



70 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

must be submitted in completed form or in satisfactory abstract not later than 
May 15 of the year of the holder's incumbency. In awarding the Fellowship 
preference will be given to students in the department of Graduate Studies, but 
applications from students in the professional departments will also be considered." 
The following is a list of the Fellows: 

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA UNIVEHSITT OF VIEGINIA 

Thomas Jackson Woofter, Jr., 1912-13. H. M. McManaway, 1912-13. 

Walter B. Hill, 1913-14. D. Hiden Ramsey, 1913-14. 

Miley K. Johnson, 1914-15. Samuel T. Bitting, 1914-15. 

Hoke Smith O'Kelly, 1915-16. Tipton Ray Snavely, 1915-17, 1918-19. 

Thomas A. Thrash, 1916-17. - R. L. Morton, 1917-18. 

W. M. Rogers, 1917-18. Thomas Elbert Wright, 1919-20 

Frank Taylor Long, 1918-19. 

Ruth Reed, 1919-20. 

The Fellows and Their Work 

A brief account of the work of each of these Fellows is given below: 
At the University of Georgia 

1, Thomas Jackson Woofter, Jr., A. B., University of Georgia, 1912, Fellow 
1912-13. Mr. Woofter's work was directed by Dr. R. P. Brooks, Professor of 
Georgia History. Publications: "The Negroes of Athens, Georgia" (Phelps- 
Stokes Fellowship Studies, No. 1), Bulletin of the University of Georgia, Vol. XIV 
No. 4, Serial No. 217. 

In this study the effort was made to interview the head of every Negro family 
in Athens. A questionnaire was filled for each family. The information gathered 
related to the size of the family, the amount of the income and its sources, the 
expenditures for food, fuel, etc. The premises were inspected. In all 1,018 
homes were inspected (91 per cent of the total number of residences in Negro 
settlements), housing 1,224 families, or 4,798 individuals, which was 77.6 per cent 
of the Negro population as shown by the Census of 1910. The lodges, churches, 
and schools of Athens were also investigated, and questionnaires were sent to 
white families employing Negro servants. 

Some of the conclusions of Mr. Woofter's studies were: 

Domestic service, once held in high esteem by Negroes as a vocation, is now looked 
down upon. Living conditions among the Negroes of Athens are a menace to the health 
of the whole community, white as well as colored. The expenditures of the poorer Negro 
families for fuel and rent are entirely too high. The Negro churches are not getting hold 
of the younger Negroes. The social life of the mature Negroes is in the church and the 
lodge. 

After leaving the University of Georgia Mr. Woofter's work was with the 
United States Bureau of Education and the Phelps-Stokes Fund from October, 



PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIPS 71 

1913, to October, 1916. During this time he did field work and office work in 
the preparation of the report on Negro Education. From October, 1916, to 
May, 1917, he was a graduate student at Columbia University. During the 
summer of 1917, as an employe of the Department of Labor, he investigated the 
migration of the Negroes from the South, his report being published in the official 
Bulletin of the Department, under the title "Negro Migration in 1916-17." 
In September, 1917, he was given a commission in the Adjutant General's Office, 
War Department, was sent to France, and remained there until the close of the 
war. He studied for a short time at the Sorbonne in Paris before returning to 
the United States. He is at present continuing his graduate studies at Columbia 
University. 

2. Walter B. Hill, B. S. E. E., University of Georgia, 1913; Fellow 1913-14. 
Mr. Hill's work was directed by Dr. R. P. Brooks. Publication : A Rural Sm-vey 
of Clarke County, Georgia, with Special Reference to the Negroes (Phelps-Stokes 
Fellowship Studies, No. 2), Bulletin of the University of Georgia, Vol. XV, No. 3, 
Serial No. 236. 

In this study 52 white landowners, 30 colored landowners, and 70 colored 
tenants were interviewed, questionnaires being filled out for each one. The 
questions covered the size of the farms, the land teniu-e, the merits of "cropping" 
and renting, the quality of labor, cost of labor, crops raised, the question of child 
labor on the farms, and the methods of finance. In addition, all the schools and 
churches, both colored and white, in the county were visited. Information was 
obtained from school teachers, church clerks, and pastors. 

The conclusions of Mr. Hill's study were that the schools are inadequate, 
especially the Negro schools. The churches have nonresident pastors who preach 
only one or two Sundays in a month. Farm labor is getting scarcer, and is less 
satisfactory than formerly. Cropping is considered best from the tenant's stand- 
point, and the wage hand system from the landlord's. The farm tenants are 
exploited by reason of the large interest they pay for advances of provisions. 

After leaving the University Mr. Hill was engaged by the Phelps-Stokes Fund 
and the Bureau of Education and remained in this work from August, 1914, to 
July, 1919, except for a short time when he was with the Personnel Division of 
the War Department, distributing the colored draft for the Personnel Committee 
of the General Staff. He was with the Federal Board for Vocational Training at 
Atlanta, Georgia, in charge of the Negro work of the board, until January 1, 1920, 
when he became State Supervisor of Negro Schools under the State Department 
of Education of Georgia. 

3. MiLET K. Johnson, A. B., University of Georgia, 1914; Fellow 1914-15. 
Mr. Johnson's work was directed by Dr. Howard W. Odum. Publication : "School 
Conditions in Clarke County, Georgia" (Phelps-Stokes Studies, No. 3), Bulletin 
of the University of Georgia, Vol. XVI, No. 11a. 

The city and rural schools of Clarke County were studied, and the Negro 
and white schools. The follov*ing points were considered: Comparisons of 



72 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

enrollment and attendance, percentage of pupils in each grade, their distribution 
by age, class standing, retardation, deportment, preparation of teachers, condition 
of the buildings. Binet and other tests were made of 300 children, and com- 
parisons of white and colored children. Mr-^ Johnson found that the white 
children excel the Negro children as the tests become more difiBcult. He also 
found that there was only one good public school for Negroes in Clarke County 
outside of the city of Athens, and that much of the educational work for Negroes 
is of little or no value. He found that the white schools are little better than the 
colored schools. 

4. Hoke Smith O'Kellt, A. B., University of Georgia, 1915; A. M. 1916, 
Fellow 1915-16. Mr. O'Kelly's work was directed by Dr. Howard W. Odum. 
His report, "Sanitary Conditions among the Negroes of Athens, Georgia," has not 
been published. 

Mr. O'Kelly became sufficiently interested in Negro questions to enter Columbia 
University and continue his studies in that field. He was with the American 
Forces during the war, and is now at Rana, New Mexico. 

5. Thosias a. Thrash, B. S., University of Georgia, 1916, Fellow 1916-17. 
Mr. Thrash's work was directed by Dr. R. P. Brooks. He was making a study 
of the economic and social conditions among the Negroes of Oglethorpe County, 
Georgia, when he left to join the Army. As his study was not completed there 
has been no publication. 

6. W. M. Rogers, A. B., University of Georgia, 1917, Fellow 1917-18. Mr. 
Rogers' work was directed by Dr. H. W. Odum. He left to join the army before 
completing his study of the social and economic conditions among the Negroes of 
Oconee County, Georgia, but made arrangements to return and complete the 
investigation. This he has done, and he is now at the University. 

7. Frank Taylor Long, Mercer University, Fellow 1918-19. Mr. Long's 
work M'as directed by Professor Frazier, of the Economics Department. His 
study involved the part taken by the Negroes of Athens and Clarke County in 
the war. It included investigation of the men in service, the Red Cross work. 
Liberty Bond sales. Thrift Stamps, and other activities of the Negroes. The 
study has been pubUshed. 

Mr. Long was formerly a professor of English at Southern College, Sutherland, 
Florida, and is again filling that chair. 

8. Ruth Reed, Fellow 1919-20. Miss Reed is the first woman to hold a 
fellowship at either Georgia or Virginia. Her thesis is to be a social survey of the 
Negro women of Gainesville, Georgia. Miss Reed's study is made under the 
direction of Prof. C. J. Heatwole of the Department of Sociology and Education. 

At the University of Virginia 
1. H. M. McManawat, Graduate of the University of Virginia, Fellow 
1912-13. Mr. McManaway complied with all the requirements of the Fellowship 
except the completion of a monograph embodying' the results of his research. 



PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIPS 73 

After leaving the University he became Superintendent of Schools of Albemarle 
County, Virginia, his researches as Fellow having interested him in educational 
work. Albemarle is one of the few counties in the state which has a training 
school for Negroes. This school was built after Mr. McManaway became super- 
intendent. Mr. McManaway is at present Superintendent of the Virginia School 
for the Deaf and Blind at Staunton, Virginia. 

2. D. HiDEN Ramsey, Graduate of the University of Virginia, Fellow 1913-14. 
Mr. Ramsey's thesis was published as a part of the volume of the Phelps-Stokes 
Fellowship papers issued by the University of Virginia, and entitled "Lectures 
and Addresses on the Negro in the South." 

The subject of the thesis is "Negro Cruninality." The various sections deal 
with the historical background, showing how the Negro criminal was developed; 
"Negro Law," which discusses the difference in administration of justice for 
whites and blacks; laws passed primarily to control Negroes; laws not applied to 
Negroes; laws enforced against whites only; the attitude of the average Negro 
toward crime; examples of fairness and unfairness toward the Negro in southern 
courts; opinions of persons who have investigated the subject. 

From his study Mr. Ramsey concludes that courts must administer justice to 
black and white alike, and that laws which are unfair must be repealed. He 
believes that Negro leaders must create a reverence for law among their own 
people. He urges that when Negroes are found guilty they ^be legally pun- 
ished, but not given excessive sentences. 

Mr. Ramsey held the position of Commissioner of Public Safety at Asheville, 
N. C, later opening a law office in that city. He was recently appointed Com- 
missioner of Public Safety at Winston-Salem, N. C. 

3. Samuel T. Bitting, Graduate of the University of Virginia, Fellow 1914-15. 
His publication was "Riu:al Land Ownership Among Negroes of Virginia," and 
it was published as a part of the Phelps-Stokes Fellowship series. 

Diu-ing the investigation special attention was paid to Albemarle County. 
Mr. Bitting personally interviewed Negro landowners in the county, filling out a 
questionnau-e for each one. He found that many of the landowners did not 
depend on farming for a living, but worked at some trade and made farming a 
side line. He also investigated health and educational conditions as well as social 
and religious conditions. He studied the reports of the Virginia Tax Commission, 
the State Auditor, and the State Department of Health. He interviewed men 
in various sections of the state who are recognized as authorities on certain phases 
of Virginia life. Mr. Bitting's conclusions were that the Negro problem is partly 
biological, partly economic, partly educational and social. There must be a 
better adjustment between the Negro's environment and his racial inheritance. 
Land ownership among the Negroes must increase if the race is to improve, because 
civilization begins with a sense of possession, and if the Negro is to have a real 
home, he must own it. Mr. Bitting concluded that the Negro must be educated 



74 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

along race lines, that foundations must be laid first and higher education acquired 
later. The crux of the problem is in economic efficiency. 

Mr. Bitting did not follow up his studies. He became connected with the 
National City Bank of New York, and is in foreign service for the bank at Shanghai, 
China. 

4. Tipton Eat Snavelt, Graduate of Emory and Henry College; Fellow at 
University of Virginia, 1915-17. His thesis, "The Taxation of Negroes in Vir- 
ginia," was published in the Phelps-Stokes series. 

Mr. Suavely collected his data from state laws and judicial decisions, historical 
documents, state papers, and other sources. He showed that real estate is the 
chief source of all taxes paid by Negroes, and that the Negro taxpayer suffers 
from several types of injustice. He pointed out that the holdings of Negroes are 
generally small, and that, compared to the value, assessments are lowest on large 
holdings. The assessments, he found, are highest where the Negro population is 
most dense, and that property of the same market value, when held by Negroes, 
is assessed more than when held by whites. 

In 1916 Mr. Suavely entered Harvard University, receiving the degree of 
A. M. in 1917. During the summer of 1917 he made a study of Negro migration 
from Alabama and North Carolina. The results of this investigation were pub- 
lished in the United States Department of Labor report, "Negro Migration in 
1916-1917." He is at present a professor in economics at the University of 
Virginia. 

5. R. L. Morton, Graduate Hampden-Sydney College, studied at University 
of Virginia and at Harvard University; Fellow at University of Virginia, 1917-18. 

]VIr. Morton's thesis, "The History of Negro Suffrage in Virginia Since the 
Civil War," has been published. 

Mr. Morton was at the Camp Library, Camp Hancock, Georgia, during and 
after the war. He is now professor of history and political science at William and 
Mary College, Williamsbiu-g, Virginia. 

6. TnoaiAS E. Wright, Graduate of Harvard College. Fellow at University 
of Virginia, 1919-20. His thesis is to be a social and economic siu-vey of Roanoke, 
Virginia, and is under the direction of Professor Lindsay Rogers of the Depart- 
ment of Economics. 

The first year the Fellowship was established at the University of Virginia 
seven prominent and liberal-minded Southern men were brought to the University 
to speak to the students on various phases of the race relations and problems. 

Future Developments of the Fellowships 

The work of the Fellows at the University of Georgia has been directed by 
Professors R. P. Brooks, Howard W. Odum, and C. J. Heatwole. Both Professor 
Brooks and Professor Odum are no longer at the university. At Virginia the work 
has been directed by Professors Thos. W. Page and Lindsay Rogers. 



PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIPS 75 

It will be noted that the eight Fellows at the University of Georgia have 
confined their studies to the Negro life in a small section of Georgia. Two of 
them have made their studies at Athens, which is the university city. Three 
have studied Negro life in Clarke County. One has taken Oconee County, which 
is the very small county south of Athens, and another Oglethorpe County, a large 
county lyiug east of Athens. This Fellow, however, did not complete his study, 
and there has been no arrangement for its completion after his return from the' 
army. The present Fellow is confining her study to Gainesville. 

General investigations are both dangerous to the student and of little value 
to those who desire monographs to aid them in dealing with concrete problems 
of race relations. The number of concrete subjects which can be investigated in 
the short time indicated in the foregoing schedule is necessarily limited, especially 
as no provisions for traveling expenses is made by the Fund or either institution. 
This necessitates the study of conditions close to the university. The problem of 
selectmg such conditions will become increasingly hard as the subjects are exhausted- 
The six Fellows have all had to spend two or three months in general reading and 
study to become en rapport with their field. Then from a month to six weeks has 
been spent in the preparation of questionnaires determining the scope of the 
investigation. The actual investigation cannot begin therefore until some time in 
midwinter. The time remaining is short and, unless the investigation is very gen- 
eral, the work of assembling material lasts until late in the fall. 

Until January, 1920, the Educational Director of the Fund at Washington 
had had practically no contact with the FeUows. The Trustees felt the importance 
of developing an esprit de corps among those who had held Fellowships diu-ing 
recent years, both in the University of Virginia and the University of Georgia. 
It was also felt that the group should establish contacts, both with the Southern 
University Race Commission and other important movements for the improve- 
ment of race relations. Accordingly, a conference of the eight Fellows from 
Georgia and the six from Virginia was called at Tuskegee for January 5 and 6, 
1920. Invitations to meet with these Fellows were extended to two professors 
from each of the two universities, to the University Commission on Race Questions, 
and to representative white and colored leaders. In all there gathered twenty-nine 
southern leaders, who, for two days, discussed present conditions in the South as 
they affect the economic and social welfare of whites and blacks. The discussions 
were based on frank statements of the existing attitudes of white and colored 
people. The Educational Director of the Ftmd presided at the meetings on the 
request of the group. 

During this conference the Phelps-Stokes Fellows decided to form a permanent 
organization. Mr. T. J. Woofter, Jr., of the University of Georgia, was chosen 
permanent secretary. They also discussed the studies that should be made by 
men or women who should hereafter hold the Fellowships. As these studies may 
be the basis of future scientific studies of Negro life and race relationships in 



76 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

America, it was felt that care should be exercised to make them a positive scientific 
contribution to the literature of the subject. Helpful suggestions were made 
by Mr. L. C. Gray, of the Division of Farm Management of the Department of 
Agriculture, and by Mr. Monroe N. Work, of the Department of Research 
and Records, Tuskegee Institute. Letters have commended the conference most 
highly: "I feel that I have a keener appreciation and a deeper understanding 
of our southern problems as a result of the conference," wrote one participant. 
"The Tuskegee meeting was a time of permanent spiritual value for me and for 
each one of the Phelps-Stokes Fellows," another asserted. 



VI 
UNIVERSITY COMMISSION ON RACE QUESTIONS 

Formation op the Commission 

The education of the Negro involves not only the adjustment of ten millions 
of black people to the economic, civic, and spiritual possibilities of a democracy, 
but it also involves the adjustment of the white North and the white South to 
the Negro. It was with a full and compelling realization of this that a group of 
university men from eleven of the southern state universities met in Nashville, 
Tennessee, in 1912. In an open letter to the South which this group of leaders 
later issued, they said: "The South cannot realize its destiny if one-third of her 
population is undeveloped and inefficient. For our common welfare we must 
strive to cure disease wherever we find it, strengthen whatever is weak, and 
develop all that is undeveloped. The inadequate provision for the education of 
the Negro is more than an injustice to him; it is an injury to the white man." 

While the need of aligning the universities which were taking such a large 
part in the development of southern manhood into a more thorough study of the 
Negro and his significance for the nation had been considered many times, the 
active call which brought the group together came most fittingly from Dr. James H. 
Dillard, formerly of Tulane University, and later of the Jeanes Fund and Slater 
Board. 

No constructive work in the education of the colored people of the United 
States can ignore the work of this University Commission on Southern Race 
Questions. So in accord with the purposes of the founder of the Phelps-Stokes 
Fund, the Fund gladly allied itself to the Commission by contributions and by 
endorsement of the programs. 

Purpose of the Commission 

At the first meeting the purpose of the Commission was stated briefly : 
Such a Commission should consult with leading men in both races, should endeavor to 
keep informed in regard to the relations existing between the races, and should aim especially 
to influence southern college men to approach the subject with intelligent ioformation and 
with sympathetic interest. 

From time to time the members of this group have gone on record in public 
address and in printed letter and report in the work of molding opinion in the 
South so that right relationships should result. 

Professor De Loach, of the University of Georgia, said in December, 1912: 

I am fully persuaded that we cannot afford any longer to let the natural resources of the 
South, so generally left in the hands of the Negro, drift into the Mississippi River and the 
Atlantic Ocean. A word to the Negroes may be the means of saving miUions to the South 

77 



78 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

annually. It requires only one generation to waste natural resources in the form of soil that 
it has taken ages to form, and which cannot be regained in a hundred years. One way to 
prevent the waste is to give the Negro, who does his full share of wasting, access to scientific 
methods, especially since he responds so readily to this sort of advice. 

Professor Sutton, of the University of Texas, said: 

The problem to be attacked by this commission is extraordinarily complex. The prob- 
lems of all the institutions of civilized life must be considered — the problems of the home, 
the church, the school, the state, the industrial world, and civil society. In a great measure 
our work will involve a patient and careful examination of actual facts. 

Professor Doster, of the University of Alabama, conceived the work of the 
group to be as follows: 

1. The Commission should gather facts concerning the economic, social, religious, and 
educational conditions of the Negro. 

2. Should these facts, when collected, warrant such action, the Commission should urge 
the state universities and other higher institutions of learning in the South to offer, through 
their departments of sociology and kindred departments, courses dealing with race relations. 

3. The elevation of the Negro is chiefly a matter of education. To educate the Negro and 
at the same time promote good feeling between the races is a delicate task. Agencies con- 
trolled by ideals in accord with the spirit of the South should be provided for training Negro 
ministers, teachers, and supervisors of schools. The courses of study in the Negro elementary 
schools should be directly related to the environment of the Negro child and, in the main, 
should be vocational in character. 

4. It must be borne in mind that any attempt to elevate the Negro must be met with a 
corresponding attempt to improve the condition of the poorer white classes of the South. 
Otherwise racial antagonism will be increased rather than diminished. 

The personnel of this body insured the honesty of the work done, and has 
made the statements and reports issued authoritative. At the first meeting there 
were present : 

James J. Doster, University of Alabama. 
Charles H. Brough, University of Arkansas. 
James M. Farr, University of Florida. 
R. J. H. De Loach, University of Georgia. 
William O. Scroggs, Louisiana State University. 
W. D. Hedleston, University of Mississippi. 
Charles W. Bain, University of North Carolina. 
Josiah Morse, University of South CaroUna. 
James D. Hoskins, University of Tennessee. 
Williams S. Sutton, Universityof Texas. 
William M. Hunley, University of Virginia. 

Since the first meeting Professor Brough has become Governor Brough of Arkansas, 
and his place has been taken by David Y. Thomas, of the University of Arkansas. 
Professor Bain has died. His place has been taken by Professor E. C. Branson. 



UNIVERSITY RACE COMMISSION 79 

Professor Hedleston of Mississippi has been followed by Professor William L. 
Kennon, and Professor De Loach by Professor R. P. Brooks, while Professor Brooks 
has in turn been succeeded by Prof. C. J. Heatwole. 

Results of the Commission's Work 

The results of the work of this Race Commission have been more far reaching 
than it is easy to measure. Courses in the study of race questions have been 
introduced into most southern colleges and imiversities. Professor Boyd of 
Trinity College, North Carolina, where the commission met in January, 1916, 
said that — 

he was surprised to find how eagerly the students at Trinity went about the study of race 
questions when given topics bearing on the general subject for discussion as class exercises. 
He thought this practice should be encouraged at aU southern colleges. Southern college 
men should be brought face to face in a scholarly way with the race problem, he said, and he 
declared that he had found essay writing, with such subjects as segregation, education of 
Negroes, manual training versus book learning, the Negro in politics, the colored church, 
the colored minister as a leader, the Negro business man, the Negro and the trade union, the 
Negro club, social and beneficial, etc., both interesting to the student and productive of good 
results. 

At the University of North Carolina the students have assisted in a Negro com- 
munity sanitation survey — "one of the first and best conducted surveys of the 
kind ever undertaken." In Texas, students under the direction of Dr. Sutton 
surveyed two colleges for Negroes. Their purpose in this study was varied, but 
among other reasons they were attempting to find out the need for such institu- 
tions and to what extent the need was being satisfied. At a meeting in August, 
1916, Dr. Kennon mentioned the fact that "in conferring the degree of doctor 
of laws recently, the University of Mississippi emphasized the point that the 
degree was conferred in that instance in recognition of studies made by the man 
who received it in the field of race relationships." 

There is no doubt that the southern imiversities are turning out white men 
who have a more intelligent point of view toward their black neighbors than 
formerly — a point of view based on first hand knowledge interpreted by a broad 
social science and a fine statesmanship. 

The pubUshed reports of the Commission have been open letters on Lynching, 
on Education, on Migration; articles on The Religious Contributions to the 
Betterment of the Negro, The Civic Status of the Negro, The Basis of Efficiency — 
a study of the relation of education to industrial efficiency, and The Economic 
Condition of the Negroes of Knoxville — a study by one of the students in the 
University of Tennessee. 

The contribution of nearly $6,900 which the Phelps-Stokes Fund has made to 
this work needs no comment. The Fimd is to be congratidated that it has had a 
part in the work. 



VII 
THE SOUTHERN PUBLICITY COMMITTEE 

One of the great forces for good or evil in race relationships is the public press. 
The perplexity and intensity of race feelings have been greatly increased during these 
post-war days by the thoughtlessness and indiffetenee of white papers and by the 
reckless agitation of Negro papers. Flaring headlines have started several 
dangerous riots. The dramatic elements of race conflicts appeal to the "news 
sense" of reporters, while friendly interchanges of white and colored people and 
constructive movements between the races are deemed to have but little "news" 
value. Too many white papers have failed to give space to any Negro news 
except that which pictures the individual Negro as a "brute" and the race either 
as buffoons or idlers. With very few exceptions, Negro newspapers have filled 
their columns with bitter denunciation of white people. There has been prac- 
tically no effort to distinguish betM-een white people who are fair and those who 
are unjust. In this the Negroes fall into the same error they have long attributed 
to the whites— that of holding all colored people responsible for the offenses of 
the few. 

The Southern Publicity Committee represents an effort to show how this 
most unfortunate and dangerous publicity may be corrected and a new emphasis 
given to the constructive and friendly relationship between the races. The 
organization of the committee was made possible through appropriations by the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund— $1,000 in November, 1917, and $2,500 in 1918— to Mi-s. 
John D. Hammond of Georgia. Mrs. Hammond is a native Georgian whose 
work and writings have done much to develop confidence between the races. 
Her book, "In Black and White," is one of the notable discussions of the Southern 
situation. It was through the efforts of Mrs. Hammond and upon her advice 
that the members of the Southern Publicity Committee were selected. They 
are men and women of outstanding influence in their states, some of them well 
known throughout the nation. The committee remains as at first constituted, 
except for Mr. D. P. Toomey, of Texas, who died in the summer of 1919. The 
other members are: 

Dr. James H. Dillard, Virginia. Mr. Clark Howell, Georgia. 

Mrs. John D. Hammond, Georgia. Dh. W. D. Weatherford, Tennessee. 

The Right Rev. Theodore D. Bratton, Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, District of 

Mississippi. Columbia. 

Hon. Edward E. Britton, District of Mr. Arthur B. Krock, Kentucky. 

Columbia. Mrs. W. S. Winsborotjgh, Missouri. 

Dr. Charles L. Crow, Florida. Mrs. J. H. McCoy, Tennessee. 

Dr. W. S. Currell, South Carolina. Mr. C. P. J. Moonet, Tennessee. 

Mr. Jackson Davis, Virginia. Mr. Walter Parker, Louisiana. 

Mr. E. B. Doran, Texas. Mrs. Percy W. Pennypacker, Texas. 
80 



SOUTHERN PUBLICITY COMMITTEE 81 

Purpose and Scope 

Statements explaining the purpose and stope of the work have been issued 
from time to time by Mrs. Hammond as secretary of the committee. In one 
such statement, sent to the editors of one hundred and six southern newspapers 
as well as to a number of important individuals and institutions, in the early 
stages of the work, the following occurs : 

The Southern Publicity Committee believes that the moral and material prosperity of 
the South depends upon the moral and economic development of its entire population; and we 
ask the cooperation of southern editors in aiding this development by giving publicity to this 
constructive work. 

The Committee's work is done in no spirit of boastfulness or self-satisfaction. They are 
aware of the shadows, the sinister influences in the lives of both races. But they believe the 
good outweighs the evil, and deserves as wide a hearing; and that to give publicity to these 
efforts to build up better understanding between the races, and to cooperate with the better 
class of Negroes in improving conditions among their people, will encourage others of our 
own people to similar efforts, and will further the interest of both races. 

Somewhat later, when the committee was seeking to enlarge the scope of its 
work, the following statement was sent to the editors of the religious press of the 
South: 

The Southern Publicity Committee asks your help in putting before the membership of 
your church the constructive aspects of relations between the races. There are, among whites 
and blacks, sinister influences at work; yet all over the South men and women of both races 
are found seeking a new understanding of one another, a better basis for our bi-racial life. 
There are individuals, church and business groups, county and state officials and boards, 
who are, consciously or unconsciously infusing into our racial relations more of the spirit of 
justice and service. 

To give these matters publicity, through both the secular and religious press, will, we 
believe, encourage others of our people to similar efforts, and will strengthen public sentiment 
in favor of Christian solutions of our problem. 

Again, when Mrs. Hammond felt that the work could be further broadened, 
she wrote to Dr. Weatherford, secretary of the Y. M. C. A. in southern schools 
and colleges, and to Miss Bertha Conde, of the Y. W. C. A., both of whom wrote 
statements for her to send to the organizations in the southern schools and 
colleges. 

Dr. Weatherford wrote as follows : 

A new day is dawning in connection with race relationships in the South. Both white and 
colored are more eagerly alive to the progress of the other, and all are anxious to know the 
best facts. Mrs. J. D. Hammond, Secretary of the Southern Publicity Committee, is gather- 
ing up facts of interest to both white and colored people of the South, which facts should be 
given broad publicity. I heartily commend these statements to you, and suggest that you 
give them as wide publicity as possible. 

Miss Conde wrote: 



82 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

The Southern Publicity Committee has been compiling most interesting information 
which it desires to put in the hands of people connected with educational institutions who will 
report it to interested students and professors. There is no question in the United States 
more worth our earnest study and sympathy than the Negro question; and in these days of 
reconstruction and re-shaping our principles of democracy we need as a country, and as a 
Christian student movement, to do our share of thinking. 

A still more recent attempt to reach a larger reading public was made when 
Mrs. Hammond issued to all of the school and college presidents of the South a 
brief statement of her desire to put before the young people constructive facts in 
race relations: 

The Southern Publicity Committee wishes to put before the students of the South, of 
both races, those aspects of our racial relations which make for a better understanding, for 
Christian justice, cooperation and kindness. Releases similar to the enclosed will be sent 
monthly to Y. M. and Y. W. C. A.'s in the schools of both races throughout the South, with 
the consent and approval of Association National oflBcers. Will you not help us with your 
influence in your institution by encouraging the Associations to give publicity to these con- 
structive facts, and by otherwise leading your students to see that the moral and economic 
prosperity of the South depends upon moral and economic development of all its population; 
upon justice, cooperation, and mutual trust? 

If there is no Association in your school, will you not post the releases sent on the school 
bulletin board, or otherwise call attention to them? 

Attitude Toward the Work of the Committee 

The attitude of the newspapers and periodicals in the South has been most 
cordial. Many people have expressed their approval not only of the purposes of 
this committee, but specifically of the type of work which it is doing. There 
was no difficulty in obtaining a committee to serve officially as sponsors for the 
enterprise. To quote from a report of Mrs. Hammond's : 

There was only one member of this committee to join it with reluctance. When I had 
occasion to write him last spring a letter which called for a reply he did not answer. I had 
wanted to see him ever since, and to get him interested if I could. He is a fine man, and a 
very great influence. So I took the opportunity to visit him. We had a long talk, and I told 
him of a lot of things I wanted to do to which I feared he might object. He said, when I 
came away, to do any thing I thought worth while and it would be all right. He said he had 
used "a very considerable proportion" of my articles, thoroughly approved of them both as 
to form and matter, and thought they would do much good and that the results would be 
slow, and while cumulative could never be tabulated or shown up for what they were, but he 
felt I was on the right track. 

The attitude of some of the newspapers and individuals receiving the material 
is indicated by the following quotations. 

From the New York Age: 

I am very glad to see that serious thought is to be given by you and other strong women 
in trying to change the attitude of the White South toward the Black South. 



SOUTHERN PUBLICITY COMMITTEE 83 

From the Raleigh News and Observer: 

We have run every one of your notices, and as well as I remember, every one appeared no 
the editorial page. I think it is a very useful work you are doing. I believe it will do a great 
deal of good. Of course, one cannot put his finger on the benefits which come from such work, 
but that is true of much work which is conceded to be very necessary. The function of the 
press and the public spirited publicist is to go right on giving good advice regardless of dis- 
couragements and the apparently small impression which is made. 

From the Chicago Defender: 

We greatly realize the need of such service as you contemplate oflFering, and wish to assure 
you of our hearty cooperation along all lines that are conducive to the advancement of your 
enterprise. 

From the Louisville Courier- Journal: 

You may be sure that we will use the service as regularly as possible. 

From the Midland Methodist: 

The Southern Publicity Committee is doing important work. Seeing results will be long 
delayed, and hard to identify, but the work is none the less vital. I have written an editorial 
squib on your last release, and marked the release for immediate appearance in the Midland. 
Other editors, I doubt not, are doing the same. "Here a little and there a little" helps. 
This lynching business is desperate, and must be met in some way. Making sentiment is 
like building blood corpuscles — slow and imperceptible, but a matter of life and death. The 
Publicity Committee is on the right track. You are doing needed and most important work. 
From Mr. Wallace Buttrick, of the General Education Board, New York City: 
I have been reading those articles with very great interest. The work you are doing is 
of marked value and importance, and I congratulate you and the country. 

From Mr. George E. Haynes, Du-ector of Negro Economics, of the Department 
of Labor: 

I have just had a clipping from the New Orleans Times-Picayune of an article about the 
work of this Department which I judge was sent out from your office. I thank you very 
heartily for it. I am sure it will help spread the service to great extent. 

Circulation of Material 

The Southern Publicity Committee is increasing its circulation of information 
rapidly. The first releases sent out were to one hundred and six papers, which 
had a circulation of 1,833,500. Some of these papers published articles at once 
and regularly. Others have done it only after watching the results from some 
of their more powerful and fearless neighbors. 

Next Mrs. Hammond sought to cover the Negro press. The followmg is from 
her own report: 

Sometimes I think one can do more by establishing a sympathetic understanding, in a 
personal way, with individual colored men and women of large influence than in almost any 



84 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

way open to us. It seems to me a number of Negroes do really begin to trust me and count 
me a friend; and having done my best so many years with so keen a sense of their hidden, 
intense reserve, their doubt of everything a white skin may cover, it seems quite wonderful 
to feel, as I sometimes do, that the sword of their suspicion no longer flashes between us, and 
they are open to approach. If the publicity work must move slowly, there is, while I am 
working at it, this other opportimity. 

How the work has developed, and what the plans for the future are may be 
seen from statements in a report made by Mrs. Hammond in January, 1919: 

For the coming year the work is to be enlarged. It is planned to send out some 750 
copies of the releases each time — -1 ,500 monthly. The list of morning dailies will be continued, 
and that of the colored papers somewhat enlarged ; but the week-day afternoon papers in the 
smaller towns will be especially sought after, and the larger county papers throughout the 
South. These two classes of papers reach a large element among our people who especially 
need to become familiar with the attitude of the best and most forward-looking Southern 
folk in regard to "the Negro problem." The list of religious weeklies will be continued; 
and once a month the newspaper lists will be shortened to permit the inclusion of 300 or 400 
college Y. M. and Y. W. C. A.'s. Releases will be sent to Associations of both races, with 
the backing of the National Associations' officers, and their request to post the articles on 
the "Y" bulletin boards, to call attention to them from time to time in their meetings, and 
occasionally to use them in a discussion of racial relations. 

Type of Material Issued 

The material which the committee puts into circulation is all carefully verified 
and checked up before it is released. Mrs. Hammond feels that it is essential 
that the work of the committee shall not be handicapped by any carelessness or 
inaccuracies in editing. Her facts are gathered from reports of organizations 
that are working under, or with, the Government at Washington, from state 
publications, from various societies, both colored and white, that are 
promoting the general welfare and the spirit of cooperation in the South. 

The reports have covered a wide range of subjects. The following headings 
indicate the character and scope of the topics discussed: 

"Southern Church Women Assist Colored Women," a report from a meeting in Nash- 
ville, Tennessee. 

"A Broad-Gage Public Service, a report of civic welfare and educational work in Hous- 
ton, Texas. 

"General Hutcheson on our Negro Troops," a report of a speech of commendation made 
at Hampton Institute. 

"A Growing Southern Investment," a report of the work of the Jeanes Fund throughout 
the South. 

"A Double Service Flag," an account of the Service Flag Parade in Atlanta, Georgia, 
which was headed by a colored man named Isaac Sims. 

"Virginia Women Doing Great Work," a discussion of the war accomplishments of the 
Colored Women's Clubs of Virginia in erecting an industrial home school for wayward 
colored girls. 



SOUTHERN PUBLICITY COMMITTEE 85 

"Southern Opinion of Negro Education," reports of work being accomplished in some of 
the Negro schools in North Carolina and Tennessee and contributions which have recently- 
been made them from the public funds, as well as from private funds. 

"Production and the Mob Spirit," a report on Government investigations in East St. 
Louis, Illinois, which resulted in the erection of a community center and a general program 
for community betterment. 

"Race Conferences of Significance," a report of work being done through the Bureau of 
Negro Economics in the Department of Labor. 

"Better Negro Schools for Louisiana," a synopsis of recent educational awakenings in 
different sections of Louisiana. 

Some articles on lynching, and a statement of the feeling of the better minds 
of the white and colored races. Typical examples of the articles are given on 
page 86. 

Recent Extension op the Work. 

In September, 1919, it was decided to increase the amount of publicity work 
in the South. The generous response "of the press to the activities of the Inter- 
racial Committee led the Trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund and others interested 
in the promotion of right relationships to feel that the time had come to use the 
county newspapers in addition to the large metropolitan dailies. Accordingly, 
Sydney D. Frissell was employed to undertake this work. Mr. Frissell was born 
in the South, has worked among the Negroes, and is familiar with the activities 
of both the white people and the colored people in the South. He began his work 
in October, 1919. 

The success of the work is indicated by the fact that s\ich county papers as 
the Farmville Herald, Charlotte Gazette, Kenbridge Free State, and Blackstone Courier 
have used all the articles submitted, while the Virginia Pilot of Norfolk, the 
Richmond News Leader, and the Richmond Times-Despatch have published a 
number of articles. 

In his report for December Mr. Frissell said : 

For the month of December I can report that my writings have had wide circulation. 
The Sunday New York Times printed a 3,000-word article called "Meeting the Negro Prob- 
lem," the Richmond Times-Despatch published a letter on the work of the Piedmont Sana- 
torium for Colored Tubercular Patients, the Richmond News Leader published a Christmas 
article, and a similar article reached some eight or ten Virginia counties through local county 
papers. New counties which I have reached this month are Halifax, Mechlinburg, Appo- 
mattox, and Buckingham. As usual I have reached Nottoway, Amelia, Prince Edward, 
Lunenburg, Charlotte and Dinwiddie. Henrico, the city of Richmond, and adjacent counties 
are covered well by the Times-Despatch and the News Leader, in both of which my contri- 
butions have appeared. 



EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 



(Southern Publicity Committee) 
STATE GOVERNORS ADOPT 

A RACE PROGRAM 



Denver, Colo. — At the annual Con- 
ference of Governors just held here race 
problems were brought before the body 
by a committee from the Southern So- 
ciological Congress. The committee con- 
sisted of Bishop Bratton, Episcopal Bishop 
of Mississippi and president of the Con- 
gress; J. E. McCuUough, its secretary, and 
Dr. J. H. Dillard, chairman of the section 
on race relations. The congress, in its 
recent appeal to the Federal Government 
to control mob violence, took the ground 
that race problems are of national rather 
than sectional concern; and it was felt if a 
policy could be formulated which could be 
endorsed by the governors of all the states 
a starting point would be secured from 
which the whole problem might be worked 
out along common lines. 

The committee stated its belief that "no 
enduring basis of good will between white 
and colored peoples in this country could 
be developed except on the fundamental 
principles of justice, cooperation, and race 
integrity"; and that we owe it to posterity 
"to preserve the purity of our democratic 
ideals expressed in the American constitu- 
tion as well as the purity of the blood of 
both races." 

The three items of the program are: 
The preventing of mob violence; safe- 
guarding the Negro's rights of citizenship ; 
promoting closer cooperation between the 
races. 

The specific suggestions under the first 
head appear very inadequate, as nothing 
is said of punishing mob leaders; but an 
honest carrying out of the rest of the pro- 
gram will do away with mobs by changing 
public opinion. This includes, under the 
second head, proper traveling accommo- 
dations, better housing, and adequate 
school and recreational facilities. 

The real strength of the program is in 
the promotion of cooperation. If the best 
men and women of the two races can be 
brought to know one another, the bogey of 
"social equality" will vanish and mutual 
trust and respect be established. Local 
white and colored committees are to be 
formed to consider matters of common 



interest — a policy already in successful 
operation in a number of communities in 
every southern state. The employment 
of colored physicians, nurses, and police- 
men for public health and law-enforce- 
ment among Negroes is recommended; co- 
operation with all constructive agencies of 
both races; and the appointment by each 
governor of a standing commission to 
study the race situation and to recom- 
mend means to prevent friction and to 
promote good will. 

This program was adopted in whole, 
and with hearty recommendation, by all 
the governors present. 



SOUTHERN COUNTIES TAKE 

OVER CHURCH SCHOOLS 



Waynesboro, Ga. — The Burke county 
board of education has accepted Haven 
Academy, a school for Negroes belonging 
to the M. E. Church, and has increased 
the appropriation for colored schools in 
order to properly maintain it. A new, 
modern building is contemplated; and 
Burke will join the lengthening line of 
those counties which are holding the 
Negroes at home by providing educational 
opportunities for their children. 

In St. Mary's Parish, La., the same 
church has turned over Gilbert Academy 
and 40 acres of land to the parish board. 
The board, with the help of the Smith- 
Hughes fund, will maintain an English 
and agricultural school with at least five 
teachers, the teachers of agriculture being 
employed twelve months in the year. The 
people of the parish have given $1,500 for 
improvements for the school. 



RACE COOPERATION 

IN MISSISSIPPI 



Beookhaven, Miss. — The city cham- 
ber of commerce has given $500 to pro- 
mote community service among Negroes 
here, including the employment of a 
colored public-health nurse. A coopera- 
tive committee of both races has already 
justified its existence by smoothing out 
causes of friction between the races. 



A Ttpical Press Sheet Sent Out by the Southern Publicity Committee 



VIII 
WAR WORK 

The acute problems of race relations developed by the war and reconstruction 
conditions after the war taxed every individual and agency with any preparation 
to give counsel. The good-natured indifference of the nation toward important 
problems was strikingly illustrated by our ignorance of the life and work of our 
eleven million Negro neighbors. The war soon revealed this ignorance, with the 
result that hurried and emphatic calls were made upon individuals and organizations 
known to have any knowledge of Negro affairs. The demands upon the workers 
of the Phelps-Stokes Fund were both varied and frequent. The organizations 
with which the Fimd cooperated in this work were chiefly the War Work Council 
of the Y. M. C. A., the War Time Committee of the Churches, and various 
divisions of the War Department, both in the United States and France. The 
five regular workers of the Fund were transferred at one time or another in various 
capacities to the War Department or some agency closely identified with the 
prosecution of the war. 

War Department — ^War and Education 
One of the first calls was from the Committee on Education and Special Train- 
ing of the War Department, which had to do with the mobilization of the schools 
to assist in the training of the army. The General Staff soon realized that the 
eleven million Negroes could furnish hundreds of thousands of vigorous yoimg 
men for the army, provided satisfactory training could be arranged. The large 
percentage of illiteracy required schools and teachers to impart the rudiments 
of knowledge. The army need for mechanics made it necessary to establish 
vocational schools. The preparation of colored officers called for effective educa- 
tional facilities. All of these demands were both insistent and sudden. There 
was no time for study or delay of any kind. It was, therefore, fortunate that the 
Phelps-Stokes Fund and the United States Bureau of Education had just com- 
pleted the survey described in another chaj^ter of this report. The Fimd accord- 
ingly placed workers and files at the disposal of the War Department. The first 
task was to aid the Department to determine the schools fitted to do the varying 
grades and kindfe of educational work required. Some of the difficulties which 
developed during the war were caused by the inability of army officers to determine 
the real status of institutions for the education of Negroes. In the haste of army 
organizations, institutions were at first rated according to their names and claims. 
Thus a number of so-called colleges and universities were ranked according to their 
catalogues, when their equipment and teaching force scarcely merited the standing 
of secondary schools. Likewise, several institutions making large use of such 
titles as "industrial," "technical" and "agricultural" claimed recognition in the 
War Department program for training technical workers when their experience 
and personnel were either entirely inadequate or limited to literary instruction. 
To meet these (Miculties, one of the Phelps-Stokes workers became a super- 

87 



88 EDUCATIOMAL ADAPTATIONS 

visor of vocational courses for the War Department Committee on Education 
and Special Training. The experience and knowledge acquired by the Phelps- 
Stokes staff d*uring the siu-vey of Negro schools made it possible for this supervisor 
to give an accurate estimate of the possibilities of each institution to supply the 
various forms of training required for the army. Another worker became an 
assistant to the Committee on the Classification of Army Personnel. This worker 
gave to the committee the results of several years' careful study of the industrial 
qualifications of the Negroes in the United States. Through his knowledge of 
their schools, he assisted the committee to understand the extent to which the 
Negro soldiers had been trained for positions as mechanics and other important 
occupations. Through his efforts the War Department was organizing plans to 
recognize every possible qualification of the Negroes for service and leadership. 
Had these plans been inaugurated at the beginning of the war, it is probable that 
many mistakes could have been avoided. 

Two other of the Fund's workers entered governmental service and rendered 
valuable aid through the training obtained with the Fund. One of these was a 
commissioned officer in charge of some of the statistical departments of the A. E. F. 
The other became an accountant in the Treasury Department. 

In addition to these workers whose services were entirely transferred to the 
Government during the war, there were frequent demands upon the Educational 
Director for advice by various governmental departments engaged in war work. 
These departments included several divisions, committees and commissions of the 
War Department, the Labor Department, and the Department of Agriculture. 
With the increasing perplexity of race-relationships among our troops overseas, 
arrangement was made for the Educational Director to spend some time in Europe. 
The overseas service was concerned with questions of morale and education. 
Cooperation was developed with all the important agencies concerned in the 
welfare of Negro troops. 

Through the aid of the commanding officers of the A. E. F., conferences as to 
army policies were held with the various branches of the army containing Negro 
troops, and some helpful changes were realized. Unfortunately the work was not 
begun early enough to overcome the difficulties before the armistice made the 
continuation of the service less necessary- 

Probably the most important service rendered overseas by the Educational 
Director was the aid given to Dr. R. R. Moton of Tuskegee, who went to France 
at the request of President Wilson and Secretary Baker. Through information 
already assembled, it was possible to facilitate Dr. Moton's travels to the camps. 
His conferences with commanding officers resulted in many improvements in the 
handling of Negro troops. In these conferences he spoke with frankness and 
wisdom. His suggestions were received in the spirit with which they were given. 
Dr. Moton's talks to the soldiers were filled with encouragement and sound advice. 
These soldiers were made to feel that their services were essential parts of the 
great effort to save democracy. 



WAE WORK 89 

War-Time Committee of the Churches 

The Educational Director of the Fund was the secretary of the committee 
appointed by the War-Time Commission of the Churches to give special attention 
to the needs of Negro soldiers and to community problems arising from the 
presence of these soldiers. This committee employed two colored men. One 
of these, financed by the Phelps-Stokes Fund, made careful observations of con- 
ditions in and about the cantonments where colored soldiers were located. The 
reports prepared by this worker showed such a thoroughness in ascertaining the 
truth and such a constructive point of view in the recommendations made as to 
win the cordial approval of the War Department and all the agencies cooperating 
in the care of the soldiers. When demobilization was well vmder way in the 
United States, he went to France under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A. to observe 
the conditions under which Negro soldiers were living and to suggest ways by 
which undesirable conditions could be changed. 

The second worker devoted his time to the study of the churches in their relations 
to colored soldiers. On the basis of these observations, he assisted the churches to 
plan their activities so as to be of real help to the soldiers in the community. Un- 
fortunately this effort was not in time to be of large influence. 

The general influence of the War-Time Commission of the Churches on the 
welfare of Negro soldiers was effective in many directions. On the basis of the 
observations made by the committee, representations in behalf of the colored 
soldiers were made, not only to the War Department, but also to organizations 
and individuals in any way concerned in the welfare of soldiers. 

With all the publicity given to the splendid response of the colored people to 
war demands, it is not necessary in this connection to record the observations and 
experiences of the committee. WTiile there were perplexing problems of adjust- 
ments between white and colored troops and white and colored civilians during the 
war, it is the uniform testimony of all that the Negro soldiers and civilians rendered 
a patriotic service that won the admiration of the country. 

War Work Council of the Y. M. C. A. 

In addition to appropriations made by the Phelps-Stokes Fund to the War 
Work Council for the aid of its activities among Negro soldiers, the ofljcers of the 
Fund devoted some time as members of committees and in an advisory capacity in 
various phases of the work of the Y. M. C. A. The Educational Director spent 
about three months overseas advising with both the officers of the Association and 
of the army headquarters as to the welfare of the colored troops in France and 
England. The conditions requiring attention were largely the necessary conse- 
quence of the rapidity with which the military organization was created. Un- 
fortunately racial misunderstandings current in the United States were carried by 
our troops to France. The appreciative attitude of the French people toward both 
white and colored soldiers contributed to the perplexity of the situation. ■V\Tiile 
difficulties arose, there were definite indications that conditions creating misunder- 



90 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

standings would be eliminated as rapidly as the exigences of war would permit. 
The General Headquarters of the Army and the cooperating organizations were 
undoubtedly making serious efiPorts to develop a military organization based upon 
the principles of justice and good will. 

After- War Cooperation 

It was inevitable that the imrest which prevailed throughout the nation after 
the war should involve the colored people. The groups with grievances and the 
groups with natural ambitions had been led to believe by war-oratory and govern- 
mental propaganda that the day of self-determination was at hand. The Negroes, 
increasingly conscious of the limitations of their position, were naturally sensitive 
to the appeals of those who promised the immediate elimination of their difficulties. 
During the war these Negroes had devoted themselves, their children and their 
property to what they thought was a fight for democracy — democracy in Europe, 
democracy in the United States, democracy for Negroes. It is not surprising that 
the Negro press and many Negro leaders gave expression to bitter disappointment 
that conditions of travel, education, court procedure, and many other fundamental 
phases of their life were not immediately improved. 

Many white people, on the other hand, were quick to believe current rumors 
about the aggressiveness of the Negroes. It was reported that the Negro soldiers 
would return to demand the social equality accorded to them in France. While the 
colored soldiers returned in good spirit, ready to do their share in the upbuUding 
of the nation wherever opportunity was offered, the demands made by Negro labor 
along with all other labor and the imrest of colored people along with the general 
unrest of the period were interpreted to be proofs of dangerous Negro aggression. 
The extensive immigration from the South to the North during and after the war 
greatly intensified this feeling. The South was distxu'bed by the loss of so much of 
its labor. The North was equally, if not more seriouslj', disturbed by the 
difficidties of housing and racial adjustments in large cities already sorely 
perplexed by the heterogeneity of population. 

In view of the racial disturbances clearly pending, in the early months of 1919 
the Educational Director of the Phelps-Stokes Fund arranged for a conference of 
the representatives of aU war-working organizations to consider the cooperative 
measures necessary to deal with the situation. This meeting was held February, 
1919, in the Russell Sage Building, New York City, and included both white and 
colored people of the North and South, and representatives of the War Work 
Council of the Y. M. C. A., War Camp Community Service, Y. W. C. A., and the 
War-Time Committee of Churches. The conference requested the War-Time 
Committee of Churches to study the situation and arrange for further cooperation. 
As the Educational Director was the secretary of the special committee thus 
appointed, he immediately undertook the work and arranged for another con- 
ference of representatives of war-working organizations in Atlanta, Georgia. It 
seemed desirable that the movement should really begin in the South, where the 



WAR WORK 



91 



great masses of the colored people live. At the Atlanta conference, held in March, 
it was decided to form a Committee on After- War Cooperation, to be composed of 
representatives from the various southern states. The Chairman of this Committee 
was ]VIr. J. J. Eagan, of Atlanta, Ga., and the Educational Director of the Phelps- 
Stokes Fimd was secretary during the period of organization. Mr. Eagan, as 
chairman of the committee, assembled the white representatives from the various 
states in conference at Atlanta early in April. At the same time. Dr. Moton of 
Tuskegee assembled a group of southern colored men at Tuskegee. Representatives 
of the white committee met with the colored group at Tuskegee. The expenses of 
these two conferences were paid by Mr. Eagan. At this time it was hoped that the 
financial support of the two committees would be met by the War Camp Com- 
munity Service. Unfortimately, the War Camp committee decided that the 
movement was not within the scope of its activities. Fortunately, the War Work 
CouncU of the Y. M. C. A., with large statesmanship, appreciated the value of the 
movement and appropriated sufficient funds to continue the organization until 
January 1, 1920. 

With equal statesmanship, the War Work Council entrusted the management 
of the movement to the Committee on After- War Cooperation. The name, how- 
ever, was changed to that of the Inter-Racial Committee, and Mr. R. H. King, 
Executive Secretary of the Southeastern Department of the War Work Council, 
became the executive officer, with Mr. Eagan as Chairman. The movement thus 
acquired not only the financial support of the War Work Council but much of its 
personnel. The state secretaries of the War Work Council, together with the 
representatives of what was formerly known as the Committee on After-War 
Cooperation, combined to advance a program for inter-racial work in every state. 

The plan of organization proposed at the original meeting, and now largely 
realized by the War Work Council, is indicated in the following diagram : 



Committee on After- War Cooperation 



Business 
Organization 



Executive Committee 



State Committee 



Press School Churches 



Labor 
Associations 



Rural 
Life 



Welfare 
Organization 



Bar 

Associations 



Women's 
Clubs 



92 EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATIONS 

The most essential part of the inter-racial program is the organization of com- 
mittees of white men and committees of colored men in as many localities as 
possible. These committees are in the nature of clearing-houses for the elimination 
of all conditions that make for racial misunderstanding and for the development of 
aU movements that make for peace and good will between the races. The results 
achieved by the Inter-Racial Committee in the southern states are quite remark- 
able. In addition to the organization and conference work, the committee has 
had a striking influence on the press. There has been a marked change in the 
headlines and the emphasis in a large proportion of the papers. Of the 759 counties 
in southern states in which the proportion of Negroes is sufficiently large to warrant 
inter-racial committees, organizations have been formed in nearly half. The com- 
mittee further plans to hold a conference of National leaders of all agencies interested 
in race relationships for the purpose of working out a constructive and statesman- 
like policy. It is well known that these committees have already prevented a 
number of dangerous riots. Public opinion favorable to adequate educational and 
health facilities has been formed. It is well known that each of the committees is 
working for as much as possible of the inter-racial program outlined above. The 
cooperation of the Phelps-Stokes Fund with the Inter-Racial Committee has been 
one of its most profitable undertakings. 

With success assured for this inter-racial movement in the South, the Phelps- 
Stokes Fund has been making preliminary observations of racial conditions in 
Northern cities. These observations clearly indicate that there are serious racial 
problems in these cities. While almost every city has one or more organizations to 
deal with its difficulties, there is great need for a means of exchange of experiences 
and methods among these cities. Some of the municipal organizations have de- 
veloped plans which would be very helpful if they could be applied to other cities. 
The whole situation would be much improved if each city could feel that it is a part 
of a general movement for the development of race harmony. There is evidently a 
need for a movement similar to that already so effective in the southern states. 
There are at least two movements which deal somewhat with the inter-city problem. 
The National Urban League is doing effective work in dealing with certain phases 
of the problem. It has not, however, been successful in winning an adequate support 
from the white citizenship of either the northern or southern cities. The Inter- 
Church World Movement promises cooperation of white and colored churches of 
both the North and South. The development of race harmony requires the co- 
operation of all elements of a community. It seems clear that an adequate treat- 
ment of the present situation demands a movement that will include not only the 
white and colored churches, not only the colored people and their immediate friends, 
but such organizations as the Chambers of Commerce, the civic associations, news- 
papers, educational institutions, and all groups of representative citizens, white 
and colored. The Phelps-Stokes Fimd has accordingly decided to make a more 
careful survey of the possible groups that should be included in the type of co- 
operation represented by the Inter-Racial Committee of the Southern States. 



